The Issues

Why are millions of small-scale commodity growers around the world experiencing crushing poverty, yet growing the essential crops for multi-million pound industries, such as cocoa for the global chocolate industry?

Powerful business interests in the North control the market for the benefit of their shareholders at the expense of the people at the other end of the trading chain.

Trading Visions aims to amplify the voices of small scale producers and stimulate debate around solutions that put real power in the hands of farmers and workers in poor countries.

We are a member of the Trade Justice Movement which campaigns for the rules of global trade to put the long term needs of people and the planet before short term profits.

We support the fair trade movement, a global partnership between consumers in rich countries and producers in poor countries.

Fairtrade is a vibrant growing project to redefine global trade structures on the basis of equity, transparency and sustainable development. Though it is a very small part of the whole global economy, Fairtrade represents something much bigger, a working practical model for an international trade system based on justice and fairness.

We are inspired by the 100% Fairtrade companies like Divine Chocolate, Liberation Nuts, and CaféDirect , which not only pay a Fairtrade price for their respective commodities but are also part-owned by the farmers themselves, who sit on the boards and share in the profits of the companies.

These brands were all set up with the help of Twin Trading, a producer-owned membership organisation dedicated to developing fair trade supply chains for coffee, nuts, cocoa, sugar and fruit farmers. Twin Trading was founded in 1985 as the ‘Third World Information Network’ by the Greater London Council and started by linking London-based cooperatives with cooperatives based in the South. Twin works to develop new businesses that secure greater value from global supply chains for small scale producers, by bringing producers as close to consumers as possible.

Further reading