FairTrade

Today's post is brought to you by FairTrade!

Lots of the products we buy all the time (coffee, sugar, tea, cocoa) come from developing countries, where the producers are vulnerable to fluctuating world market prices (not unlike NZ!). Big companies and supermarket chains will screw producers down, and sometimes the price drops below that of production.
To display the FairTrade logo means the company has committed to providing a minimum price to producers, as well as a range of other employment and environmental standards (e.g. workers on tea estates getting fair wages and being able to join a union)
The more we buy, the more companies will want to provide the product. NZ doesn't seem to have a lot besides coffee and tea at the moment, but even that's something. Here in the UK supermarkets have really taken it on, even their house brands often have FairTrade options.

Follow this link to a website showing some of the producers benefiting from FairTrade.