Products
In Canada, coffee, tea, cocoa (chocolates), bananas and sugar are some of the products certified Fair Trade by Transfair Canada. The work of our group will focus on promoting Transfair certified products.
Our group spent a considerable amount of time in 2001 to investigate the possibility of importing Fair Trade bananas from the Windward Islands. In May 2004 Transfair has started certifiying bananas in Canada. A couple of importers and distributors in British Columbia have started selling Fair Trade bananas (from Ecuador) to their customers.
The Fair Trade movement has been around for 50 years and in its infancy dealt exclusively with handicrafts. It is only in the past 20 years that the Fair Trade market in commodities has developed. In fact, the Fair Trade market in commodities is highly developed with an international body (FLO) that has defined the standards and certification criteria for commodities like coffee, tea, cocoa, bananas, honey, fruit juices, rice and sugar.
The following products are marketed as Fair Trade:
- Coffee*
- Bananas** › WINFA
- Tea* › SOFA
- Cocoa (chocolate, hot chocolate)*
- Handicrafts
- Sugar*
- Spices*
- Rice*
- Wine*
- Cotton*
- Quinoa*
- Sport Balls*
(*) These are certified fairtrade products available in Canada (March 2007). For a complete list check out their website - Transfair Canada.
In addition, there are many other commodities certified fairtrade by the FairTrade Labelling Organization (FLO).
For a complete list check out their website - FairTrade Labelling Organization
For more information on where to purchase Fair Trade certified products please visit the Where To Buy sections of our site.