Is fair trade actually fair? Well fair trade is defined by the world fair trade organization as being "a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions". This defining statement however, clear it may be has a lot of vital parts missing. A big underlining question is what defines fair trade and is child labor as well as many other issues still addressed under this agreement. I strongly believe that the fair trade industries don't really provide its farmers the necessary means to drastically improve their life standards. Moreover, The main aim of fair trade organization (increase wages) has left a lot of issues unspoken about, such as child labor.
The issue facing almost all farmers, especially chocolate farmers is the increase in demand, which has forced prices to go down and therefore directly affecting their quality of life. The chocolate market has changed drastically, particularly in China The Guardian's article on "The cocoa crises: why the worlds stash of chocolate" reported that "chocolate sales have more than doubled in the last decade, "they stood at just $2.43bn (£1.6bn) in 2013 – compared to $17.1bn (£10.9bn) in the US". This increase in chocolate sales as well as the way its consumed has lead many people into believing that the farmers are getting a fair share of this wealth however, contrary to this belief chocolate farmers actually make "3% of the retail price" as well as living on "less than $1.25" which puts them well below the line of poverty.
One of the main issues forcing farmers into staying under the line of poverty is child labor. In 2009 one of the main Cadbury suppliers located in Ghana "suspended 7 out of 33 of their working cocoa farming communities after they were found to be using the worst forms of child labor" -Paul Kenyon.
