Fairtrade : Principles and Perceptions from a French Perspective

INTRODUCTION"By good distribution, we should not understand equal distribution, but fairdistribution.

The first equality is fairness."Victor Hugo, 1862, Les Miserables.Fairness in business is topical.

Fairtrade orginates with the concept of tradeitself.

Some authors defended the value of fairness, equity and equality in businessrelationships in all cases.

In the second half of the 20th century, the word Fairtradedeveloped into a concept of Fairtrade, which is now the contemporary term.

Fairtradeis the movement which aims to empower neglected actors in the supply chain,especially producers and customers.Since this time, associations have attempted to educate consumers and tochange the market.

The number of associations and cooperatives, which use a"Fairtrade" logo on their products has increased, and nowadays, it is easy to find themin the French market.Subsequently, there is a multi-marks situation.

The real definition and purposeof Fairtrade stirs up controversy. "Competition" takes place between the products, thebrands, and more globally, the actors involved in Fairtrade development.In order to analyse the evolution of the concept of Fairtrade, this book is splitinto chapters.They provide a clear picture of the situation in order to analyse trendsand compare them to the original Fairtrade principles. Thanks to this information, wecan follow the evolution of the movement and the actors.The first chapter is a first step in clarifying the situation.

It deals with history,regulations and definitions and introduces the actors.The second chapter deals more deeply with the principles of Fairtrade and theorigin of the movement.15Principles and Perceptions of FairtradeThe third part will explain the regulations for the labels, the advantages of amark for consumers, the advantages for companies and a brief summary of the impactof a certification in the business strategies, and the multi-labels situation.The fourth chapter presents the sales actors using a typology that orientatesthem towards marketing and additionally showing the characteristics that reassure theconsumer that the Fairtrade principles are respected.The fifth chapter is a comparison between the certification model and the basisof Fairtrade, in order to see whether there is consistency between practice and theoryand to what extent.Chapter six is the explanation of the trends found in the analysis and theresearch.Theoretical, managerial and institutional implications follow the analysis, inorder to extend the research question. These generate a certification system that couldunite the actors and not dissipate them in regards of the question of certification.16