ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to outline the efforts of the fair-trade movement, which started in the 1960s. The exponents and champions of this fair trade explicitly espouse and flaunt non-economic values and purposes for trading and seek as a point of fundamental principle to see people as the ends and not the means of economic activity. From traditionally trading in crafts, the most rapid growth in fair trade has been in food products, particularly coffee. Coffee was a fitting traditional commodity for the movement to work with, in that small-scale peasant family farms are a major global mode of production, making up as much as 15% of world coffee production. Coffee brands on sale in industrialised markets with fair-trade seals have between 2 and 5% of the market share, with the highest percentage penetration in Switzerland. Fairly traded brands have also achieved widespread distribution through conventional outlets.
