What is Fairtrade

We are all accustomed to buying our bananas, our jars of coffee, and increasingly our bottles of wine, with the distinctive Fairtrade logo on them. But what does it actually stand for?

The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer and registered certification label for products that have been sourced from producers in developing countries that operate a fair deal for their workers and employees.

Argentina may be one of the fastest growing wine nations in the world, but it is still a developing country and large parts of its wine production relies on growers and their workers.

Importantly this is not an official government-backed programme, but a worldwide independent accreditation body set up to protect, support and reward people looking to making an honest living in under developed countries producing products that people in the developed world want to buy.

The Fairtrade movement is organised through one central Fairtrade International body, based in Bonn, Germany, that then sets the strategy and co-ordinates the work and activities of 32 separate Fairtrade organisations, like the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK.

The Fair Trade movement began back in 1946 when a woman named Edna Ruth Byler began importing needlecrafts from low-income women in South America.