What are FLO’s main tasks?
> BACK TO TOP How was Fairtrade labelling created? Fair trade as such has existed for over 40 years. It started as a partnership between non-profit importers and retailers in the North and small-scale producers in developing countries, who at the same as struggling against low market prices and high dependence on intermediaries, were looking for direct outlets into the European market. Over the years, more and more alternative trade organisations (ATO’s) were created in different countries, often closely related to world shops being established by groups of volunteers. These ATO’s set up networks of ‘world shops’, that were not only selling products of disadvantaged producers from developing countries, but also informing people about the current trade system, where small scale producers find it extremely difficult to survive. The same ATO’s are still very important in ‘informing the public’, but unfortunately they do not always reach the mass market of supermarket shoppers. This led to
