In 2011 The FTAANZ (Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand) announced a new system of endorsement, the Fair Traders of Australia (FToA). Stepping up to match similar endorsements  across the UK, the Continent and North America, FToA is a new system that will help consumers know which businesses are converting the majority of the products they sell to fair trade. In this day and age separating the talk about ethical or sustainable businesses from the genuine action can be very difficult.

Some straight forward questions that the FToA will answer are:-

·          Is this business selling products that can be verified by a third party (that of FAIRTRADE or WFTO (the World Fair Trade Organisation)

·          Are the majority of their products sourced from these producers? i.e. are they genuinely this way or is this a show?

·          Are they moving towards greater percentages (70%+) of fair trade products?

The FTAANZ (Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand) has worked hard to make this assessment as rigorous and honest as possible. Based on the WFTO system, the assessment allows for confidential critique of your business by partners (overseas), peers (fellow fair traders in Australia)  stacked up against your own self assessment. This method can be very revealing as many aspects of the business are covered such as action on:-

·          timely payments (the majority of which are 50% on order and total on shipment)

·          sharing information with partners to help them grow, thus building long term relationships

·          your committment to educate about fair trade

·          Your communication to and follow up on sensitive OH&S and environmental  issues (in regard to suppliers)

Beyond this each endorsed FToA must have at least 50% of their sales originating from either FAIRTRTADE labelled products (namely commodities like coffee and tea etc) or from WFTO (World Fair Trade Organisation) members. By this the FToA shows that their buying is in the right direction. In the next assessment 70% sales must be from these sources. At Tribes and Nations these products make up 85% plus of our entire sales.

·    having a Standard for Fair Trade to guide their business in the application of fair trade principles;

·    being supported by a credible assessment mechanism to enable endorsement of their business against the Standard;

·   a marketing platform to identify and promote their business as an endorsed Fair Trader;

·   support and networking services.

For the consumer, this standard helps them to have greater confidence in the endorsed business/organisations that they deal with. With many businesses writing many words about there ethical polices it is good to come back to a standard that is measurable and holds people accountable. If you have any questions about this standard please e-mail us at sales@tribesandnations.com.au or call on 02 4759-2292. If you would like to know more about it from FTAANZ direct or if you think that Tribe and Nations is not trading fairly please contact FTAANZ at http://www.fta.org.au/.