Do producers pay for Fair Trade Certification?
The certification process and annual monitoring inspection carries no cost for the producers and their cooperatives. Here in the US, Fair Trade Certified™ buyers and manufacturers are approved and monitored by TransFair USA. • How does TransFair USA make sure that farmers receive the fair trade price? Monitoring processes, established by FLO, allow TransFair USA to follow the cocoa trail from bean to bar. In order to become certified, importers and chocolate makers contractually agree to provide documentation of all Fair Trade cocoa transactions on a quarterly basis. Since every bag in each container of the cocoa-based product is labeled with that container’s unique identification number, it is possible for TransFair to keep track of each shipment from cooperative to importer to chocolate maker. For every container of cocoa-based products (beans, powder, or butter) purchased from a certified cooperative by a certified importer, TransFair receives contracts that show how much was paid f
