Fairtrade, Trust, Risk, and the Company Concession Model

Abstract

Multinationals have been taking the Fairtrade idea into the supermarkets. The Fairtrade system is poised in an ethical dilemma: the volume of its commodities is crucial for poor farmers, but if the multinational companies, particularly the supermarkets do not trade ethically, the whole of the Fairtrade movement is likely to be criticized, since trust will be lost. In this chapter I oppose the Anglo-American idea of companies where only shareholders are stakeholders with the concession idea where people tell companies to buy ethical goods. I consider how the structures of companies could be changed to make them more ethical which will allow the consolidation of Fairtrade.