ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses the differential extent to which each of these models promotes forms of social change that enhance the business position of small producers, thereby supporting wider goals of social development. The emergence and expansion of the fair trade system has been fuelled by increasing concern about declining terms of trade facing agricultural commodity producers. Today, the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) is the worldwide standard-setting and certification organization for labeled Fairtrade. The fair trade system as a whole seeks to confront the barriers to development created by the changes in global value chains described above by offering market access to the most disadvantaged producers in developing countries on terms that favor their interests. The Fairtrade certification system is in urgent need of strengthening, in particular in its operational and strategic management of corporate-buyer participation. Second reflecting the key insight of this chapter farmer-owned fair trade brands offer greater scope for producer empowerment and reward in global value-chain structures.
