ABSTRACT
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of large South African commercial farms, particularly fruit farms certified by the Fair Trade Labelling Organizations (FLO) since 2002. This has presented both FLO and its South African partners with important new political and strategic dilemmas which can not be resolved by simply appealing to established practice and precedent. The economic and political challenges arising out of the expansion of Fair Trade into South African plantation agriculture has forced FLO and its partners to reinvent and reimagine fairness, developing new answers to the question of what would constitute “fair” trade in the South African context. These debates have resulted in a complex process of convention setting, culminating in the Fair Trade Fresh Fruit and Empowerment Consultation Forum.
