Are there constraints in purchasing Fair Trade products?
Yes. In some cases, we may be legally bound to contracts with suppliers who do not have Fair Trade products. In other cases, certain types of Fair Trade products simply might not be available yet—there are more becoming available every year. And it might be that in a few cases a Fair Trade product is so much more expensive that its cost is prohibitive. This is why in our declaration we use the term “whenever possible.” We have to be realistic about constraints, otherwise you end up saying you will do what you really can’t. But at the same time we need to keep pushing not only ourselves but also our suppliers, and we have to avoid using the constraints as a rationalization for not doing what we can and should.
