The Future of Fairtrade: Questioning the sustainability of Fairtrade

Fair trade as a business model aims to improve the living standards of raw-material producers by ensuring a fair distribution of profits throughout a production chain. The sales of Fairtrade products have growing year on year in many consumer markets across the world. Thus, Fairtrade has been hailed as a tool with which poverty can be alleviated. Fairtrade products traditionally command a price premium versus non-Fairtrade alternatives, resulting in the future of Fairtrade being questioned due to increased price sensitivity brought about by the economic recession. Given the overwhelming amount of food purchases that are made in supermarkets, supermarket buyers hold a large balance of power in ensuring that Fairtrade food products reach the end consumer. As gatekeepers to the mass consumer market, their decisions in part can ultimately determine the future of Fairtrade. This thesis aims to assess the abilities of Fairtrade to continue to succeed in the future. Through in-depth interviews with supermarket buyers and Fairtrade agencies, findings show that Fairtrade products need to achieve price competitiveness, and must incur additional benefits such as streamlined and safeguarded supply chains to ensure continued success in the future.