In recent years, the number of shops and organisations involved in fair trade has grown considerably in Spain. But the movement has to think about where it is going and what it must do regarding issues such as certification and the sale of fair trade products in superstores and big commercial areas.
In 1995, a Spanish Federation of Fair Trade was founded and soon became the reference for the organisations that were working in this field all over Spain. But on March 2004 a debate among these organisations regarding the adoption of the FLO stamp, which certifies that a product has been manufactured in fair conditions, broke the existing consensus. As a consequence, on February 2006 another platform called Space for Fair Trade appeared that gathers around thirty shops, NGOs an importers.
According to those responsible for this new platform, the FLO stamp only certifies working conditions and the manufacturing of the articles in Southern countries, but not other aspects that should be considered in a global approach to fair trade such as the distribution and sale of these articles in Northern countries. In this regard, this platform prefers working with artisans and co-operatives instead of doing it with superstores.
The Space for Fair Trade also considers that the main objective should not be selling more to compulsive consumers but creating responsible consumers who participate in a broad movement and only buy what they need while knowing what there is behind every article.
According to one of the authors of a recent book that summarises these divergent criteria, fair trade is challenged with continuing to be a critical movement or becoming a mere instrument of business marketing benefiting multinationals and superstores.
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