The Adam Smith Inst. report on Fairtrade is now out.
Looks like Kay Tee\’s on the ball with her advice:
Consumers could even buy bargain products from their local supermarkets and loan the money they save directly to farmers through a microcredit agency like kiva.org.
That way the farmers both get to develop, rather than being held back technologically, an they also get 100% of your money, rather than 10% of the Fair Trade price premium.
And hippies will whine, so trebles all around, eh?