What is Trade? 

Trade is when people exchange goods and services. In Ireland trade can happen anywhere, such as the supermarket, shops and markets. In modern times people now buy on the internet.

What is Fair Trade? 

Fair Trade works on giving a fair price to farmers and workers in developing countries for their products. It is a partnership between farmers (producers) and us (consumers). It makes sure that farmers have good working conditions.

Fair Trade means:
-Producers receive a fair price
- Working conditions are healthy and safe
-Child labour is not allowed

Fair Trade improves the lives of producers by:
-Providing hospitals and schools for their families
-Lending money to farmers so they can invest in their farms.
-Showing farmers how they can improve the environment around their farm.

How do I know if it is a Fair Trade Product?

Just look out for these logos on products in your shop or supermarket. If a product does not have these logos, they are not fair trade. Another company that I like, Ben and Jerry's is also gone fair trade showing that big companies are beginning to go fair trade and take responsibility.

Here is a trolley from an Irish supermarket full with Fair Trade Products that you can buy.

Fair Trade Products

You can find many different types of fair trade products such as chocolate, coffee, tea, fruit, ice-cream, honey, cereal, flowers, juices and even footballs to name a few. 

Cadburys have now become fair trade and as they are one of the largest chocolate manufacturers this makes a huge impact for fair trade. 

This is a limited edition fair trade chocolate globe. I think this works well as a way of getting the fair trade message across but I think it would have been better if all the countries that were fair trade were made from dark chocolate and the countries which buy fair trade could be white chocolate. 

Here we have the cocoa bean as it is harvested and in the front after it is made into chocolate. 

How can Fair Trade help to improve the lives of others? 

Here are some videos explaining how fair trade helps farmers and looks at cocoa and coffee production. 

Thank you for reading my blog, hopefully you will now go fair trade.