Fairly Traded Products and Reasons for Their Selection - Essay Example

?Instructions: As a family firm, Content Cow Dairy and Mr. Swanson are worried about the firm's homespun and patriotic image. Mr. Swanson has seen the film clips of protestors at the World Bank and other international meetings calling for fair trade, not free trade, and wants to avoid controversy. You have been asked to prepare a research paper that should include the following: ABSTRACT The need to grow all sectors of the economy has resulted in the fomulation of various policies and trade strategies. Whereas some of these policies and strategic plans go a long way to benefits governments in power in the sense of ensuring the direct growth of the country’s economy, some of the policies are also directed towards the success and growth of individual businesses and go a long way to benefit investors behind such businesses. Through these policies, the actual people behind businesses and the production of market prodcuts have a sense of need for their efforts. They do not feel cheated and they feel the essence of their contribution to society. Two of such policies are fair trade and free trade. In the contest of Content Cow Dairy, this write-up seeks to delve into the meaning of these two terms; fair trade and free trade by drawing the distinction between them. It also seeks to identify how fair trade is achieved and run. What is more, the write-up seeks to explore some of the preferred corporate management strategies that would work best for Content Cow Dairy. Finally the write-up would identify problems faced by the organisation’s foreign affiliates and success ways of remeding the situation. Fairtrade and Free Trade – the Similarities and Differences Fairtrade and free trade are commercial policies that are directed towards the betterment of producers of market produce and their trading counterparts. Accordong to the Fairtrade Foundation (2011), fairtrade is a policy that requires “companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price).” The idea and need for starting fairtrade was born out of giving a fair deal to producers. “A fair deal includes a fair price for goods and services, decent working conditions, and a commitment from buyers so that there is reasonable security for the producers” (Tribes & Fair Trade Travel, 2009). This is to say that fairtrade is generally focused towards ensuring that prodcuers of market produce are not cheated – as far as the sale and purchase of their produce are concerned. Writing on freetrade however, the Greenpeace International (2011) observes that “the act of opening up economies is known as "free trade" or "trade liberalisation."” Simply put, free trade is about businesses and companies having the opportunity to trading and opening up new branches in other coutries without much restrictions. Similarly, both free trade and fairtrade are concerned with the betterment of people who put their efforts in doing business. However there is some level of difference in the sense that whereas fairtrade targets the producer and makes sure that the producer gets what he or she deserves, free trade focuses on the marketer (perhaps the one who buys from the producer) to ensure that the marketer is not limited in his or her attempt to trade off his or her products. Fairly traded Products and Reasons for their Selection The initiative of fairtrade was of course focused on specific products and not all other products. In the United Kingdom alone, The Fairtrade Foundation (2011) argues that “The Fairtrade Foundation has licensed over 3,000 Fairtrade certified products for sale through retail and catering outlets.” These 3,000 products have been categorised into components with each having minor set of products under it. These major products are listed under food and non-food products. Under the food products, the products include; Bananas, Cocoa, Coffee, Dried Fruit, Fresh Fruit & Fresh Vegetables, Honey, Juices, Nuts/Oil Seeds/Oil, Quinoa, Rice, Spices, Sugar, Tea and Wine (Fairtrade Foundation, 2011). Under the non-food products, the categories include; Beauty products, Cotton, Cut Flowers, Ornamental Plants and Sports Balls (Fairtrade Foundation, 2011). The categorisation does not differ much in the Uinted States as it includes among the ones mention above; olive oil, flower, vanilla, wine, crafts (Green America, 2011). In the United States, products that fall under fairtrade and have been traded with fair prices are identified by tagging the US fairtrade label on them. In the United Kingdom, fairly traded products are tagged with the FAIRTRADE trademark. Looking through the categories of products that are guaranteed fairtrade, it would be right to believe that such products receive such guarantee because of the vunerability of the products and in some cases their producers. Vunerability is used here to refer to the situation where most of those products are perishable products and their producers are most from poor backgrounds. Due to this vulnerability, most buyers who have rich and wealthy background used to offer undeserving prices with the view that the producers almost had no option than to accept the prices for the fear of their products going waste or getting spoilt if they a lot of day bargaining. This allegation is fairly backed by the fairtrade foundation, which states that “fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers.” Where and how are these products marketed? Are milk and milk products generally considered fairly traded goods? What are the preferred corporate management strategies (e.g. think-local, act-local; think-global, act-global; and think-global, act-local) recognizable in the organization's foreign operations. Identify problems faced by the organization's foreign affiliate(s) and make recommendations for solving the problems. Present your findings as a 4-5 pages Word document formatted in APA style. TITLE PAGE. Remember the Running head: AND TITLE IN ALL CAPITALS ABSTRACT. A summary of your paper…not an introduction. Begin writing in third person voice. BODY. The body of your paper begins on the page following the title page and abstract page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The type face should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics except as required for APA level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 4-5 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged. REFERENCE LIST Fairtrade Foundation (2011). Fairtrade FAQs, accessed May 24, 2011 from http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/faqs.aspx Greenpeace International (2011). What is Free Trade? Accessed May 24, 2011 from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/trade-and-the-environment/what-is-free-trade/ Tribes & Fair Trade Travel, (2009). What is Fair Trade? Accessed May 22, 2011 from http://www.tribes.co.uk/responsible_travel/what_is_fair_trade Green America, (2011). Fair Trade: Fair Trade Products. Accessed May 21, 2011 from http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/fairtrade/products/index.cfm Read More