Fair trade seal

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A fair trade seal or fair trade seal identifies goods that come wholly or only partially from a " fair trade " defined according to certain criteria , which means that fixed social and sometimes also ecological criteria should be adhered to during their manufacture.

definition

  • Seal of the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International

  • Seal of a manufacturer

  • "Fair" label for milk with a national reference

In a narrow sense, the Fairtrade seal is understood as the label awarded by the seal initiatives that are part of the international umbrella organization Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) . Since the beginning of 2003, the FLO seal has been standardized in most countries. The FLO Fairtrade seal is the best-known label.

There are also other Fair Trade seals of other umbrella organizations, such as the World Fair Trade Organization , product-specific seals and their own seals and labels from companies and retail chains.

The labeling of a product as "fair" is not regulated by law. In addition to the labels and standards of the fair trade organizations, products are also advertised as "fair" whose ingredients have nothing to do with fair trade with developing countries, but which are supposed to be fair in a different sense.

Fairtrade seals are to be distinguished from others. However, products with this seal often also have organic or environmental seals . There are also combined seals such as the claro fair trade seal .

Standards

The standards, compliance with which is to be signaled with seals and labels of fair trade, differ from organization to organization. Often not the entire product comes from fair trade, but only individual ingredients, sometimes in small proportions.

The award of the Fairtrade seal by the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) is linked to a number of criteria that are developed and determined by the FLO in Bonn. Among other things, this includes direct trade with the producer groups without intermediaries, pre-financing and long-term supply relationships as well as ecological standards. At the core of the fair trade standards is the payment of a guaranteed minimum price that is intended to cover the producers' living and production costs. In addition, a social premium , the so-called fair trade premium, must be paid, which enables economic and social development projects .

Compliance with these criteria is checked by the international certification body FLO-CERT. Producer groups, dealers and licensees are checked regularly.

Licensing

Licenses to use the FLO seal are granted to companies by national seal initiatives. In the German-speaking area, these are Transfair for Germany, the Max Havelaar Foundation for Switzerland and Fairtrade Austria .

Criticism of the labeling

Variety of license plates and a lack of legal protection

The labeling of a product as "fair" is not legally protected. There are a large number of different labels from independent organizations as well as manufacturers' own labels, some of them only with a regional reference that have nothing to do with fair trade in the narrower sense. The consumer center in Hamburg, for example, found 27 different marks in a study of 32 products that had a label or the word “fair”. Including as unusual as one for “fair fattening conditions”. This diversity is seen as confusing by consumer advocates, they are calling for statutory regulation.

Share of fair trade ingredients

Criticism has repeatedly been directed against the fact that the proportion of fairly traded raw materials in the end product is not always clearly identifiable on the basis of product labeling. Fairtrade International was criticized for the introduction of a new seal with which products from new Fairtrade raw material programs for coffee, chocolate and cotton can be labeled, some of which only contain low percentages of substances that have been produced according to the criteria. The consumer center in Hamburg criticized various manufacturers who described their products as “fair” for inadequate labeling of their products: Because in three cases the proportion of fair ingredients in a drink was calculated without considering the water content in the drink, consumer advocates spoke of “labeling fraud ". In the case of the organization Die faire Milch , which in Germany only pays 25% of the quantity purchased at a fair producer price (40 ¢ / l), the use of the expression “fair” was found to be legally permissible.

Cases of fraudulent labeling

In 2014 the Stiftung Warentest established that the orange juice “Fairglobe” from Lidl , which bears the “Fairtrade” logo, was by no means produced under conditions that could be described as fair. Rather, the plantation got a "poor" rating for working conditions and environmental protection.

Scientists from the University of London found that in companies with a Fairtrade label in Uganda and Ethiopia, wages were sometimes lower and working conditions were worse than in companies without a Fairtrade label. “According to our research, Fairtrade was not an effective mechanism to improve the lives of the poorest rural population, the salaried workers,” study author Christopher Cramer told the Guardian in 2014 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Seal of Fair Trade. In: Lebensmittelklarheit.de . Federal Association of Consumer Organizations, January 21, 2016, accessed on August 10, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Fairtrade Standards , fairtrade.net, accessed October 8, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b Is that fair? Consumer advice center Hamburg, March 19, 2016, accessed on August 10, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Christiane Manthey: We need a legal definition of fair trade. (No longer available online.) In: Südzeit No. 61. Formerly in the original ; accessed on August 10, 2016 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.vzhh.de  
  5. ↑ New Fairtrade Labels Attract Criticism | Trade for DEevelopment Center. In: www.befair.be. Retrieved June 18, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Fair trade: Consumer advocates consider fair trade to be a fraudulent label . In: The time . October 5, 2014, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed June 18, 2016]).
  7. ^ Magazine of the Stiftung Warentest from April 2014, p. 30, box.
  8. ↑ Axel Hansen: When coffee tastes bitter. In: Zeit-Online. August 18, 2014, accessed September 24, 2015 .