More than 145 countries around the world are already committed to the marketing of products of Fair Trade origin

An alternative to traditional commerce

COPADE Foundation is one of the leading organizations in Spain in the progress towards a more balanced economic model, carrying out different projects to achieve it.

---

 

El World Fair Trade Day It is celebrated next Saturday, an alternative to traditional commerce that seeks to build a more balanced commercial link between producers and consumers. This in order to eradicate poverty, abusive working conditions, salaries far from the legal minimum or labor exploitation.

With the passage of time, Fair Trade is becoming established in society, to the point that more than 145 countries around the world already market products from this trade model. More than 2,5 million producers dedicated, among other sectors, to agriculture or crafts, already work within the network WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization, of which 74% are women.

In Spain, for the year 2021, the consumption of products from Fair Trade exceeded 144 million euros and as indicated by a study that had the support of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, thus overcoming the fall suffered in 2020 due to the pandemic. It is a type of business that is increasingly present in different sectors of the country. To achieve this, there are different organizations belonging to the WFTO that dedicate their efforts to encouraging the establishment of Fair Trade in different businesses.

This is the case of the Trade for Development Foundation (COPADE). One of the main purposes of this organization is to encourage fair, responsible and equitable trade that allows market access to producer organizations from Latin American countries, so that they are the protagonists of their own development. COPADE's marketing area manages the sales of Fair Trade, ecological and solidarity economy products directly, or through other types of commercial agreements reached with different companies and entities.

 

 

The products marketed by the Foundation come mainly from Ecuador, Honduras and Peru, but also from Spain.

 

 

In addition, the entity has developed a methodology for calculating the social footprint of all its products and how the production of each of them contributes to the achievement of the objectives. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Information that is available to consumers on the brand's website Gaia&Coast, thanks to the fact that the product packaging includes a QR code through which you can obtain information about the company that produces the snack and the benefits it generates for the producers with whom it works.

Fair Trade in the timber sector

Among the multiple projects carried out by the COPADE Foundation is the Madera Justa initiative, a certification that contributes to the reduction of poverty and the sustainable development of logging communities, creating opportunities for economic and social development for all. Small producers who are in economic or disadvantaged difficulties by facilitating access to the market and obtaining fair remuneration for their products through Fair Trade channels.

Fair Wood promotes the responsible consumption of products of forest origin such as paper or wood, which have the Madera Justa seal and the FSC® seal, which endorses them as products of Fair Trade origin and developed through responsible management , sustainable, socially beneficial and economically viable.

In this project they collaborate closely with the company Leroy Merlin. A collaboration that was born with the objective of supporting the forest communities of Guatemala to escape poverty through a model based on sustainable forest exploitation governed by the principles of Fair Trade. The result of this alliance has been the production and sale of garden conditioning products that have FSC® and Madera Justa certifications.

These products are manufactured by forest communities located in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, which also promotes the economic well-being of the inhabitants of this country so affected by poverty. Thus, they have already managed to employ more than 13.300 local people.

Since the beginning of this collaboration in 2014 until today, more than 41 containers of tropical wood have arrived in Spain with a market value of more than 3 million euros. It is an excellent quality wood that has this FSC® seal and the Madera Justa seal, the first Fair Trade certification for the forestry sector, which also guarantees that the social conditions of the entire process are in accordance with the requirements. of the WFTO.