Why are there not more types of Fairtrade labelled products?
First of all, Fairtrade Labelling currently is only available for producer organisations in the Southern hemisphere, limiting the range of products to those produced in the tropical countries of whose ingredients come from the South. Secondly, it takes much time and money to develop Fairtrade Standards to ensure that new Fairtrade products really will benefit producers. The initial focus of Fairtrade was on agricultural commodities, such as coffee and tea, which have the most widespread impact on the livelihoods of small producers and workers in the developing world. Since then, the scope of Fairtrade is continuously being extended to other agricultural products, hand made and manufactured products, maybe to textiles and clothing as well.
