In recent years, new fair-trade initiatives and organisations have started to develop. Four developments stand out in the overall development of fair-trade.
One new development - a return to greater political involvement in both producer and consumer countries- can be illustrated with Tony's Chocolonely that was founded in 2005 by the Dutch journalist Teun van der Keuken and several other Dutch citizens. They noticed that slave-free chocolate did not exist even though several large chocolate multinationals signed the Harkin Engel Protocol that focused on the eradication of slavery and child labour. The organisation became a company focusing on research, action and production. In the current fair-trade climate, several companies will focus strongly on their fair-trade strategy, making them almost non-governmental organisations. For example, from its own resources, Tony's Chocolonely started the Chocolonely Foundation. This foundation was set up to strengthen fair trade certification in the cocoa sector. Tony Chocolonely builds its strength further through their many partnerships, working towards social change in their operating countries, Ghana and Ivory Coast. In this way, the company is certainly leaning towards an activist civil society organisation. Building upon bettering their fair-trade strategy, they opted for two methods. First, since 2016 they have been able to track their cocoa beans through their BeanTracker. In this way, they publish the entire production process from cocoa bean to the eventual chocolate bar, the so called "Bean to Bar strategy". The second important method is the introduction of the extra Tony Premium that is paid to the producers in addition to the regular fair-trade premium. They do this in order for farmers to earn a decent income.
Another important aspect that shows Tony's Chocolonely civil society engagement, is through the organisation of petitions. By presenting petitions and writing letters, they have been able to help enforce the child labour due diligence act in the Netherlands in 2019.
A second development in recent fair-trade initiatives is the inclusion of more eco-friendly producing and transporting mechanisms. Fairtransport was founded in 2007. Its first sailing ship is Tres Hombres . The three friends establishing Fairtransport had a vision of clean shipping transport. Their engine-less ship transports sustainable and organic products between South, Central and North America and Europe. In this way, Fairtransport has become an example for many companies exploring possibilities for alternative shipping methods, whilst working with eco-friendly producers. Fairtransport exports cargo including cocoa, rum, coffee, oil and wine, most of the time commissioned by companies such as Simon Levelt. Fairtransport also created their own products. Currently, Fairtransport has created fifteen types of Tres Hombres Rum as well as coffee brands.
A third important development in the sector has been a move beyond fair-trade thereby creating shorter supply chains. This development has also come to be known as direct trade, and started in the coffee, chocolate and tea branches. Examples of companies involved in this development are Wakuli, Kinti Coffee and Frank About Tea. What is evident about these companies, is that a lot of them do not want to carry a fair-trade certification. A good example is Wakuli. This start-up based in Amsterdam was founded in 2019. The company sells coffee beans straight from the farmers. Normal coffee chains contain around fourteen links, while Wakuli’s chain only contains one, namely from farm to roaster to consumer. By limiting this distance, Wakuli aims to create more profit for the farmers. In this way, they try to make sure that these farmers receive a fair price for their beans. These trading prices are presented in their impact report. As mentioned, Wakuli does not carry a fair trade label. They do not carry one, because even though they perceive fair trade and fair trade labelling as a good starting point, they think that more needs to be done for farmers to receive a fair price. In this way, they see direct trade as an alternative to fair trade, hereby perceiving the limitations of fair trade certification and adjusting them to a further extent.
One thing that all examples mentioned above have in common, is that the production chain has become even more important for fair trade. All of the examples have the production chains and routes presented on their website, so consumers know where all their products are produced.
A fourth recent development is a movement towards more transparency on the environmental and social costs of products, such as the effects of climate change from the emittance of greenhouse gasses. These costs are often not paid by growers, processors, consumers or other buyers but by individuals affected along the value chain, taxpayers and future generations. The Dutch social enterprise True Price, founded in 2012, has developed methods and tools to measure and monetise the environmental and social impact and costs of value chain elements and has calculated the ‘true price’ for various products, such as bananas, cocoa, coffee, tea, roses, T-Shirts, etc. The organisation aims to realise sustainable products by informing consumers, enabling them to voluntarily pay the true price of the products that they buy. True Price argues that “If all products are sold for a true price, then the global economy is sustainable” (True Price, n.d.). To further promote these aims, True Price has a separate foundation, the True Price Foundation, aimed at creating awareness and promoting the use of true pricing. This highlights another development that could also be seen in the case of the Chocolonely Foundation, where enterprises set up an NGO to support their fair-trade activities.
Sources:
https://tonyschocolonely.com/nl/en/our-mission/how-it-all-started
https://www.mo.be/zeronaut/fairtransport-cargo-met-de-wind-de-zeilen
https://www.businessinsider.nl/wakuli-koffie-eerlijke-prijs-niet-supermarkt/
https://www.wakuli.com/impactrapport
https://fairtransport.eu/about/
https://www.tonysopenchain.com/#top
