World Fair Trade Day 2024: Explore its Interesting History and Facts

World Fair Trade Day 2024 commemorates the fight against exploitation, poverty, and climate change, promoting fair treatment, fair wages, and safe working conditions for all workers.

Source: WorldAtlas

World Fair Trade Day 2024: On the second Saturday of May, people recognize their fight against exploitation, poverty, and climate change on World Fair Trade Day. The Fair Trade movement seeks fair treatment, adequate wages, and safe working conditions for all workers. At this time, thousands of individuals work under deplorable conditions and receive meager pay. All individuals are entitled to be treated with respect, regardless of their residential location.

World Fair Trade Day: History

During the 1940s, an individual by the name of Edna Ruth Byler sold textiles from her vehicle’s trunk. She was an entrepreneur, mother, and wife at the time; she had the unwitting ability to initiate a movement. Byler visited the La Plata Valley in Puerto Rico in 1946, where he encountered a woman who was experiencing significant adversity. After the Great Depression, she struggled to provide for her family financially, and Byler was motivated to take action. Byler observed the exquisite embroideries that the local women were producing and considered supporting their enterprise through the sale of their wares to her acquaintances and neighbors.

In the 1950s, she commenced operations for her modest enterprise. She distributed needlework from her car loaded with it to parties and women’s sewing circles throughout the nation. She informed the American public of the origins of these works of art and the skill with which the women created them. This resulted in economic security for the women of the La Plata Valley and personal triumph for Byler.

The company evolved into Ten Thousand Villages, turning what initially appeared to be a modest act of benevolence into a social movement. People were beginning to understand that laborers required care on a global scale. In 1964, the inaugural Fair-Trade Organization established worker relations initiatives involving Chinese refugees selling handicrafts to the United Kingdom through Oxfam outlets. In 1967, the Netherlands founded the Fair-Trade Original with comparable aims.

The International Federation of Alternative Traders established the World Fair Trade Organization in 1989. Groups engaged in fair trade convened annual conferences to determine the most effective approaches concerning working conditions. They officially established World Fair Trade Day in 2004. Combating poverty and exploitation, climate change, and the economic crisis in order to safeguard the most vulnerable members of society is an ongoing objective.

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World Fair Trade Day 2024: FAQs

What is the mission of the World Fair Trade Organization?

The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is a global alliance of 401 groups that improves the lives of poor producers.

Is fair trade, in fact, equitable?

The Fairtrade Foundation’s FAIRTRADE mark mandates fair trade product labeling. While financial recompense for farmers and producers to support their families is important, fair trade goes beyond that.

What is the mission of the World Fair Trade Organization?

The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is a global alliance of 401 groups that improves the lives of poor producers.

Five Fascinating Facts about World Fair Trade Day

Fairtrade Mark is a verified and independent consumer certification badge for items whose manufacturers treat their workers fairly.
The United Kingdom is home to 4,500 Fairtrade Mark products.
Distributors distribute merchandise bearing the Fairtrade Mark in excess of 120 nations.
Producers wholly own and operate Divine Chocolate, making it the only chocolate enterprise globally with this distinction.
More than 1.4 million farmers and workers around the world produce fair-trade goods.