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Chances are as you settle back to read this, you're sipping on a piping hot cup of coffee, savouring the aroma and enjoying the sweet taste of a caffeine-fuelled kick-start to your day.
But many of the ingredients that go into our favourite daily indulgences - the coffee in your cup, the cocoa beans and sugar in chocolate, the spices in our food and even the cotton in the clothes we wear - are sourced from farmers who are not paid enough to even cover the costs of production, let alone feed their families and provide adequate healthcare and education for their children.
This unjust system is driven by a handful of multinational companies which wield power over much of the international trade market. They push down the prices paid to producers and farm workers in the developing world, reinforcing the cycle of poverty.
For decades the fair trade movement has been working to establish an alternative and much fairer approach to the way materials are traded. Locally, Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand (FANZ) and the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) have been working to empower farmers and workers by paying them a minimum, stable, fair price to cover production costs.
The additional payment of a community or social premium enhances the social, environmental and economic standards of the local communities of producer cooperatives.
Elsewhere events such as Fair Trade Fortnight have had a part to play in bringing Fairtrade to the public and corporates. The annual event celebrates all things Fairtrade with a series of events, including Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break. Since it launched in 2007, Coffee Break has involved more than 85,000 participants throughout New Zealand, with money raised benefiting farmers throughout the Pacific and Asia.
But Fairtrade is certainly not without its controversy. Allegations of child labour in some Fairtrade supply chains have kept the organisation on its toes.
A 2011 survey by GlobeScan found that 57 per cent of Kiwi consumers are familiar with the Fairtrade label. But with Kiwi wallets feeling the economic pinch, are shoppers prepared to put their money where their ethics are and buy Fairtrade goods, and how well is New Zealand poised to take advantage of gaps in the local marketplace?
The success of Fairtrade in New Zealand could well be described as meteoric. Since its introduction in 2005, with sales of just over $2 million in the first year, the sector has ballooned, with turnover of $36.6 million in 2010. FANZ chief executive Stephen Knapp says support for the label in New Zealand has been strong from the offset and has continued in the face of tougher economic times.
"I think that people generally understand that if they're feeling the pinch in their pocket, the poorest people in the world are probably feeling it worse than they are," he says. ?He notes a shift in consumer attitude, with people genuinely concerned about the ethics and sustainability ethos behind the production of many of their favourite products.
Climate change and food security also play a part, making people think outside of what they're doing on a day-to-day basis.
Location, location
Oxfam executive director and FANZ board member Barry Coates acknowledges New Zealand is doing well, but cautions we're still framed by our geography.
"We have our thinking and politics framed more by where we sit in the world and miss some of the connections to Africa, Latin America and Asia, where a lot of our products come from," he says.
All this perhaps makes the case for a fair trade system in our own backyard even more poignant. As part of a long-term initiative, Coates says Oxfam is working with farmers and producers in Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to do just that. ?The non-profit organisation is already seeing the benefits of its efforts in East Timor where it's working with Movimento Cooperativo Economico-Agricola (MCE-A) to help its coffee farmers enter the fair trade market.
MCE-A has 34 cooperatives with 4200 farmers. In its work with the Ulmera Cooperative, it supports 50 coffee farmers in accessing information on market prices and on processing their Arabica coffee beans beyond the stage of being freshly picked from the tree.
By cutting out another step in the supply chain, this has increased returns from 15 cents to $1.30 per kilogram. The extra income has allowed families to become financially self-sufficient, ensuring people can feed themselves even when times are hard. ?FANZ, too, is busy working on setting up Fairtrade in the Pacific.
Knapp says the organisation has always had a responsibility to support producer organisations in Asia and the Pacific region.
"Consumers in Australia and New Zealand are keen to support Fairtrade if it comes from the other side of world, but people have a much closer affinity with countries in the local region."
When imitation doesn't flatter
The likes of Cadbury and Whittakers supporting Fairtrade has certainly helped the movement gain traction and mindshare with Kiwi shoppers. But its growing popularity has also seen an increase in the number of products making non-accredited 'fair trade' claims.
The problem, Coates says, is these brands don't have the independent monitoring and verification that gives shoppers the confidence to say that they're not just greenwashing. He advises consumers to look for credible labels "to make sure it's real and not just company propaganda".
By the same token, the launch of one Fairtrade product by a company shouldn't be confused as a blanket company value statement. "You need to remember that a Fairtrade label means the product is Fairtrade, but it doesn't endorse the company," advises Coates.
A bittersweet reality
With Fairtrade supporting approximately 1.5 million workers and farmers in 63 countries - and that number only growing - the system is facing huge challenges as it seeks to stay on top of its auditing and accreditation game. It was left with egg on its face in 2010 when an undercover BBC reporter discovered child labour was being used by a Fairtrade certified cocoa dealer in West Africa. And earlier this year, Bloomberg News courted controversy when it reported child labour was being used in the supply of organic and Fairtrade cotton to lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret.
"No certification system is ever perfect," admits Knapp. "We do the audits and the checks against the standards and if something comes to light or there's alleged cases of the standards not being adhered to - particularly extreme problems like child labour - we'll always react to that very quickly, removing the certification if necessary."
Making our mark
New Zealand may be doing well, but there's still plenty of room for trailblazing. UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's, who in 2007 announced it would convert its own label coffee, tea and drinking chocolate to Fairtrade, is a prime example. It's aiming to double its Fairtrade sales by 2015, reaching the £500 million mark - a whopping NZ$953 million.
Supermarkets like Sainsbury's are "doing their maths" and "vying to be the best on Fairtrade," Coates says, adding that New Zealand is perfectly poised for a supermarket to take the lead, differentiating itself by becoming a "Fairtrade champion" in much the same way Sainsbury's has.
Fairtrade products available in New Zealand:
Coffee, sugar, bananas, cocoa, tea, cotton, sports balls, iceblocks, baked goods.
Coffee Breakers:
Check out how these Kiwis are promoting Fairtrade in the workplace:
Peta Fraser from IAG.
Belinda Foster, co-owner of an Auckland actors agency.
How Fairtrade changed a farmer's life.
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