Do Fair Trade Certified products cost more than conventional products?
Not necessarily. Fair Trade Certified coffees and chocolates are generally priced competitively with other gourmet, specialty coffees and chocolates. They are, though, more expensive than mass-produced, low quality coffees and chocolates. Fair Trade Certified bananas, on the other hand, can cost much more than conventional bananas because small cooperatives lack the extensive shipping and logistical capabilities of vertically-integrated, multinational fruit companies and incur higher costs to transport their products to market. Furthermore, the same Fair Trade Certified product can have different prices in different retailers across the country. In the end, product manufacturers and retailers set their own prices and TransFair does not control or influence retail pricing of Fair Trade Certified products in any way. As Fair Trade expands to ever more companies and retailers, consumers increasingly have more choice of where to buy their Fair Trade Certified products. This increased compe
