What is the difference between Fairtrade and Ethical trading?

While shopping for your weekly groceries or treating yourself to a new dress, you may spot either the Fairtrade or Ethical trading logo on your items, but do you know what these logos really mean and how they affect you?

Subsequently, they don’t really affect your day to day life, however, they should affect your perspective on reality. Unfortunately, as a society we have become so immune to what is outside our comfort box, most of us won’t pay attention to where our fruit comes from, how our clothing was made or how a chicken came to sit on the shelves in our local supermarket.

Indeed, it would be impossible to understand where all of your items came from, whether that be the factory or even country. However, it is important to know about the conditions where your items are coming from.

This doesn’t require research; it quite simply requires looking for these two logos.

Fairtrade and Ethical trading, although they have different origins, they both work to make international trading as safe, fair and what we know as simply a normal working condition.

We can become blind to the world outside our own society, numb to the fact that other countries and workplaces do not have the standard laws and protection that we have ourselves. From simple things such as minimum wage and workwear safety, in some workplaces, these topics that are normal for us, don’t even exist for others.

Fairtrade works towards better pay, better prices and better working conditions for farmers and workers. Prices must not fall below the market price and code of practice must be followed. What seems like a simple shopping choice for us actually allows these workers to have more control over their every day and to simply live a better, more dignified life.  

Products in Fairtrade can cover anything from bananas, to cocoa and cotton and with over 6000 items being Fairtrade, you can be sure to find substitutes for your normal shop.

On the other hand, Ethical trading works towards better codes of conduct, ensuring that the labour rights of each employee are respected. Working with large company chains, Ethical trading aims to change the workplace from the inside, including ensuring that all working conditions are improved to a certain standard and that the pay is increased to even just a basic living wage for all employees.  

Companies such as Littlewoods, Asda, and The Body Shop have all joined the Ethical trading programme to ensure that all of their staff, no matter where in the world, are being paid fairly and treated correctly. With over 90 companies becoming members of the Ethical trading society to date, over 10 million employees now have a better working life.

When you are a member of the Ethical trading society, you must follow the 9 principles. If, at some point, it is noticed that a company is not following all 9 of these principles they are instantly terminated from the programme. A list of companies can be found on the Ethical trading website that shows who has decided to resign against their membership and who was terminated.   

To finalise, although Ethical trading and Fairtrade have different values, they are both aiming to hit the same goal; a better working life and overall a working life that we see as a standard, to be drawn out worldwide. By following and being aware of these logos, you could be changing the lives of thousands, just while you are carrying out your weekly shop.