Fair trade-cotton

Cotton

Cotton has kind of a thin fibres and a length between 10 and 50 mm. The cotton industry is very important to lots of developing countries. The countries which produce most cotton are China, India, Pakistan, Egypt,Mexico and Brazil.

Before Fair trade Before Fair trade the growers had many difficulties. One of the problems was to get out on the world market. The growers didn't have access to the world market so they were forced to sell their product to intermediaries who take much of the profit. This leads to that they eventually have to give up their farm for they can't support them selves. Because cotton farmers didn't earn so much for their product, so they didn't have money to buy the protective clothing for them selves when they needed to spray their plantations with pesticides. So often had to do with out protective clothing.

Fair trade

Fair trade cotton was available in Sweden 2005 as a result of the consumers' demand. The possibility to buy fair trade cotton gives the Swedish consumers a chance to help to improve the living and working conditions for the cotton farmers. The fair trade organisation is helping the cotton farmers in many ways. For example: they have set a minimum price on cotton so the farmers should get more for their product, they have explicit rules for chemicals management, including health promotion.