Today, I mean yesterday, in my international volunteer circle, I had a chance to learn a little about fair trade products. I'm sure that most of you have heard of it, but for me the presentation was really interesting, so I'd like to write what I've learned and what I thought by listening to it.
First of all, have you ever bought something which said to be a fair trade product? Wasn't it much more expensive than the usual one? Japan's fair trade market is comparatively smaller than other countries and they said that America and UK are the best. There, they sell those things in much cheaper prices, and that makes people easier to buy.
And someone said that it's a bit different from volunteer. The word volunteer includes the meaning of do and have done, where that kind of social class issue doesn't appear in this trade. It's not always right to buy things because of the sign, thinking that you're doing something good to the local people or whatever, and what it is the most important is to find your favorites. Keep buying those kind of products are not so easy due to the cost, but if you could choose products only by their quality, it will automatically lead more people to buy fair trade products constantly.
I had also felt difficult to buy those products because of their cost, but I fully agree with the idea that we should see their quality, not only the fair trade sticker.
