Fairtrade, fair trade, fairly traded – what do they all mean?

With so many terms out there, it can be confusing to make sense of them all. We’ll help you clear things up.

What’s the difference?

Fair trade or fairly traded is a general term referring to many things – it could be ethical trade, the fair trade movement, or fair trade products. Unlike Organic, “fair trade” is not a protected term – so any company can call their products fair trade, even when they’re not. Some companies create “fair trade” claims without the independent, third-party verification that Fairtrade has.

Fairtrade (one word) is only used by organisations, brands and products that are part of the Fairtrade International system. We are a global network of nearly 2 million farmers and workers, and work in almost 80 countries worldwide.

You can tell the difference by looking for the blue and green Fairtrade Mark on a product’s packaging. When products have our logo on them, it means that they meet our rigorous social, economic and environmental standards, and they have been independently audited by FLOCERT.