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8/17/2019 Fair Trade Marketing
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Fair Trade market creation and marketing in the Global South
Bob Doherty a,⇑, Alastair Smith b, Sara Parker c
a The York Management School, University of York, Freboys Lane, York YO10 5GD, UK b School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, Wales CF10 3WA, UK c School of Humanities and Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, John Foster Building, 80-98 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool L3 5UZ, UK
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 8 October 2014
Received in revised form 17 April 2015
Accepted 30 April 2015
Available online 11 May 2015
Keywords:
Fair Trade
Marketing
Global South
Geographical entanglements
Moral geographies
Mainstreaming
a b s t r a c t
Fair Trade emerged to commercialise Southern products in the Global North on terms overtly beneficial
to Southern producers. However, a contemporary phenomenon is the development of Fair Trade con-
sumer markets within the Global South itself: and the paper explores this as a contribution to the evolv-
ing geographies of ethical consumerism. Data was captured from secondary sources and field visits that
included in-depth interviews and participant observation. Analysis is informed by theories of market cre-
ation developed in economic geography and economic sociology. As such we focus on understanding (1)
the architecture, or networks and institutions, of commercialisation, governance and certification and (2)
the marketing practices and strategies, designed to resonate with and develop cognitive association
amongst consumers. Given the alternative geographies of South–South vis-à-vis South–North Fair
Trade, we deepen the geographical focus by applying frameworks emerging from the concept of ‘geo-
graphical entanglement’. Findings identify the similarities and differences of both Southern Fair Trade
market creation and marketing compared to the European experience. In some cases, the place-based
‘othering’, often used to develop sympathetic cognitive frames in Northern marketing, is identified, but
this time operates around alternative geographical binaries. In other cases, we highlight instances that
avoid such divisive place-making, and which instead draw on inclusive, rather than divisive, imagined
geographies, overlaid with the collective aspiration for development, pride and dignity. These findings
therefore inform the nature of geographical entanglement followed by ethical market creation, as wellas contributing to the wider theoretical understanding of moral geographies endogenous to the Global
South.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Fair Trade sales have grown in Northern consumer markets of
Western Europe and North America to reach £5.24 billion
(Fairtrade International, 2013, p. 12). This makes Fair Trade one
of the most significant sectors of ethical consumerism in the world.
To date, research has mainly focused on the relationship betweenSouthern producers, Northern companies and consumers in the
foundational Fair Trade markets of Europe and North America,
and conceptualised as part of a movement to reform inequalities
in international trade (Raynolds et al., 2007). However, a recent
phenomenon is the development of Fair Trade consumer markets
in the Global South itself, particularly in the economies of South
Africa, Kenya and Brazil (Fairtrade International, 2013, p. 10). We
also add Nepal to our country case studies, in order to contribute
to earlier work on the development of a domestic Fair Trade hand-
icraft market (see below).
Despite the emergence of Fair Trade consumer markets in the
Global South, delegates at the 4th International Fair Trade
Symposium (2012) agreed there is a dearth of research concerning
both how these markets have developed, and how marketingstrategies and practices have driven sales growth (Doherty and
Huybrechts, 2013). The vast majority of research on Fair Trade
has concentrated on South–North sales and therefore, critiques of
market development and marketing have mostly focused on con-
sumer markets in the Global North. Although there is some early
work on the development of Fair Trade markets in the Global
South (Biggs and Lewis, 2009; Biggs and Messerschmidt, 2005;
Wilkinson and Mascarenhas, 2007), this is empirically and theoret-
ically nascent. In addition, there is a lack of accessible research
from scholars on Fair Trade marketing and market creation, which
is of concern given the role that academics have previously played
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.04.015
0016-7185/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B. Doherty), [email protected]
(A. Smith), [email protected] (S. Parker).
Geoforum 67 (2015) 158–171
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Geoforum
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / g e o f o r u m
8/17/2019 Fair Trade Marketing
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in the development of the Northern Fair Trade movement (Nicholls
and Opal, 2005).
The lack of attention to Southern Fair Trade markets is also
problematic as wider research demonstrates that as incomes
amongst growing middle classes increase, these consumers are
often more likely to incorporate social and environmental factors
into their purchasing (Ariztia et al., 2014; Barbosa and Veloso,
2014; Guarin and Knorringa, 2014; Kaus, 2013; Njuguna et al.,2014; Oliveria, 2014; Schäfer et al., 2011). In Brazil for example,
the middle class is reported to constitute 100 m people (50% of
the population) with an increasing discretionary spend (World
Bank, 2013). South Africa (SA) now reports a middle class of
10.4 m people (21.3% of the population) with a propensity for vis-
ible consumption (Kaus, 2013; Visagie, 2014). However, despite
the phenomenon, Ariztia et al. (2014) argue that the role, and
therefore research around, the consumer in these nascent ethical
markets is overemphasised compared to the role played by
NGOs, networks, institutions (e.g. the state) and Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) initiatives by Multi-National Corporations
(MNCs). These arguments are also supported by work that shows
the importance of both private standards (e.g. Fairtrade certifica-
tion) and environmental education in stimulating ethical con-
sumption (Guarin and Knorringa, 2014; Ritter et al., 2014).
Therefore, research on the growing emergence of Fair Trade mar-
kets offers to contribute to the current literature, especially where
the work goes beyond the traditional focus on the role of the
consumer.
In order to add value to current knowledge, the paper makes a
foundational contribution by providing the first consolidated
empirical account of Fair Trade market creation from across
Southern continents: with case studies from Brazil, Kenya, South
Africa and Nepal. To unpack the development of these ethical mar-
kets, we take a novel approach in the study of Fair Trade by draw-
ing on interdisciplinary theory from economic geography and
economic sociology (Berndt and Boeckler, 2009; Fligstein and
Dauter, 2007). Deconstructing the operation of markets, we adopt
the proposition that market creation is underpinned by three irre-ducible social forces: (1) networks, (2) institutions, and (3) cogni-
tive frames (see below for definitions). Moreover, we aim to
develop the geographical focus of this perspective by analysing
the fundamental geographical reconfiguration embedded in the
development of South–South trade, vis-à-vis South–North interac-
tions. Here we draw on the conceptual framework of ‘‘geographical
entanglement’’ (Pike, 2009, 2013) and further compare and con-
trast differences in networks (the actors involved), institutions
(the rules for organising Fair Trade activities) and the efforts to res-
onate with, and develop, associations to cognitive frames (through
branding and marketing practices). Comparisons are drawn both
between new Southern cases studies and existing practices and
knowledge around South–North constructions.
The paper falls into four major sections. Firstly, after a brief summary of the underpinning theory of market creation, we
reinterpret the literatures associated with the development of
Fair Trade markets using this new theoretical lens. Here we
account for the creation of Fair Trade markets in the Global
North in terms of the creation of networks, institutions and
development of cognitive frames in branding and marketing.
Secondly, the paper presents our exploratory case study method-
ology, which draws on a series of semi-structured interviews,
participant observation from country field visits and both public
and internal secondary documents. Thirdly, we analyse the data
from our four country case studies, Brazil, Kenya, South Africa
and Nepal, and present empirical themes as well as reflecting
on the consequences for geographical associations. The final sec-
tion concludes with an overall discussion and suggestions forfurther research.
2. The market creation and marketing of Southern Fair Trade to
Northern consumers
Despite the continued narrow treatment of markets as the man-
ifestations of exchange between buyers and sellers, literature in
economic geography and economic sociology offers a deeper theo-
retical account useful for interpreting the creation and develop-
ment of Fair Trade markets. Although there is debate overdiffering signification and conceptual composition (Fligstein and
Dauter, 2007), there is emerging agreement that markets are com-
posed of three distinct, yet interrelated dynamic social compo-
nents: networks (of producers, intermediaries, retailers and other
actors), institutions (which organise and govern the activities of
trade, and we implicitly argue below include the rules of private
certification systems) and cognitive frames (that provide struc-
tures of values and meanings in which trade is embedded)
(Beckert, 2010; Berndt and Boeckler, 2011). One of the key charac-
teristics of this conceptualisation is that whilst other literatures
have treated the individual components of market creation sepa-
rately, these are irreducible and mutually interrelated through
dynamic interactions: with changes in one market component
often influencing reconfiguration in others (Beckert, 2010).
Furthermore, Berndt and Boeckler (2011) argue that morality is
also important in market creation. Although some work has con-
sidered the influence of cognitive frames on production networks
(Hughes et al., 2008), neither ethical production in general or
Fair Trade more specifically have been examined through the
above theoretical lens. Therefore, the following review of the liter-
ature concerned with the growth of Fair Trade as an ethical con-
sumption phenomenon, reinterprets existing knowledge for two
purposes: the first to test wider theorisation through the previ-
ously unconsidered case of Fair Trade market creation; and second,
to summarise existing knowledge of Fair Trade markets as back-
ground for the analysis of data generated in the previously unex-
plored context of the Global South.
2.1. The architecture of Fair Trade markets: Network and institutional
development
Until 1988, Fair Trade was mainly referred to as a political
movement advocating for changes to international trade rules
and practices to provide better terms of trade for marginalised
Southern producers (Fridell, 2004a). However, as noted by theories
of market creation (Fligstein and Dauter, 2007), actors who have
found themselves excluded from, what are often termed as ‘con-
ventional’ markets in the Fair Trade literature, sought to create
new market niches in which to perform more effectively. Indeed,
disheartened with the failures of state institutions to create a more
amenable context for Southern exports, from the 1950s organisa-
tions in Europe and North America partnered with Southern pro-ducers to move beyond advocacy and actively create so-called
Alternative Trade networks (EFTA, 2006). Fair Trade goods were
initially sold through churches and small-scale ‘‘world shops’’
(Huybrechts, 2012; Ingenbleek and Reinders, 2013), driven by a
cognitive frame concerned with reconfiguring the structural
inequalities of South–North trade (Raynolds et al., 2007). Given
the fundamental focus of Fair Trade on issues of economic geogra-
phy, we argue for the value of tracing the nature of ‘‘geographical
entanglements’’ (Pike, 2011, 2013), or the geographical character-
istics of market components within Fair Trade markets, and it is
towards this contribution that the paper progressively builds.
Market creation took a new form in 1989 when the first Fair
Trade certification system, represented by the Max Havelaar label,
was launched in the Netherlands to offer Alternative Trade net-works a new institutional regime to structure their activities.
B. Doherty et al./ Geoforum 67 (2015) 158–171 159
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Following the success of this system, other Fair Trade national cer-
tification initiatives emerged in Europe, North America and Japan,
and in 1997, seventeen of these grouped together to form the
Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO), now Fairtrade
International.1 Further individual Fairtrade National Labelling initia-
tives have emerged, and by 2014 there were 19 such organisations
(including Fairtrade Eastern Africa and South Africa). As predicted
by wider market creation theory, the new trade network actorsand associated institutional regimes have precipitated wider
changes. With independent guarantees of ethical production and
trade conditions, Fair Trade products could enter conventional trade
networks (such as those coordinated by supermarkets and MNCs),
whilst preserving their appeal to consumers embedded in cognitive
frames that included ethical commitments (Barrientos and Smith,
2007). It was a result of this so-called ‘mainstreaming’, that some
Fairtrade Marked products now hold significant market shares e.g.
50% of bananas sold in Switzerland are Fairtrade certified
(Fairtrade International, 2013, p. 14).
At the same time, another global organisation driven by similar
cognitive commitments to reducing structural trade inequalities
offered another institutional framework for the expansion of Fair
Trade markets. The World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO – for-
merly the International Federation for Alternative Traders, IFAT)
was launched in 1989 and is now a global network of over 300
Fair Trade organisations (exporters, importers and retailers). In
contrast to Fairtrade International, the WFTO has mainly worked
with handicrafts as opposed to commodity agricultural products.
When membership was formalised, those affiliated were peer
reviewed around their ability to meet the WFTO’s Ten Principles
of Fair Trade. In 2004 the WFTO also launched its own accredita-
tion label for whole organisations, which also differed from the pro-
duct certification provided by Fairtrade International. However, in
2013 the WFTO also contributed to the new institutional regime
of independent private certification with a product label of its
own (Smith, 2014). Importantly, this system has been devised with
a strong focus on the promotion of South–South trade; which has
long been part of the WFTO agenda as a means to support producerlivelihoods (IFAT, 2000, p. 7).
Although some academic and media discourses treat Fair Trade
as one homogenous movement (Fridell, 2004a), it is clear that Fair
Trade networks and institutional frameworks are highly diverse.
These can range from Alternative Trading Organisations (ATOs),
such as Traidcraft in the UK and CTM Altomercato in Italy working
closely with small-holder farming communities, through to major
MNCs, implementing Fair Trade supply chain mandates on existing
suppliers (often captured in supply chain typologies: see Doherty
et al., 2012; Reed, 2009). Again, as predicted by the wider theorisa-
tion of market creation, the involvement of supermarkets and
MNCs in these supply networks has changed the dynamics of
Fair Trade markets. Firstly, supermarkets advertise products carry-
ing the label and arguably contribute to the cognitive frame of con-sumers, for some of whom (so-called ethical consumers, largely
from the middle classes) Fair Trade becomes a growing part of
everyday consumption. Secondly, institutional changes have
occurred through choice editing, where Fairtrade has become the
only option in a given supermarket product category e.g. bananas
(Bezencon and Blili, 2010). Less positively, some scholars have also
argued that the widening of Fairtrade markets has come at the
expense of diluting the very meaning of Fair Trade in the main-
stream and beyond ( Jaffee, 2010; Jaffee and Howard, 2010;
Smith, 2013c). Finally, another development in network composi-
tion has been the involvement of Fair Trade campaign groups e.g.
Fair Trade towns and other places (Smith, 2015). These have also
explicitly incorporated public institutions within Fair Trade mar-
kets (Fisher, 2009; Smith, 2013a), and such possibilities have also
recently been supported by changes in European public procure-
ment rules (therefore showing the influence of supra-state institu-
tions on market dynamics).
2.2. Resonating with cognitive framings: The geographicalentanglement of Fair Trade branding and marketing
The literature on Fair Trade consumerism, which so far has been
limited to studies in the Global North, identifies the contested nat-
ure of the cultural frames that underpin Fair Trade markets. There
is a body of evidence that demonstrates some consumers are will-
ing to factor in social justice into their purchase decisions ( Bondy
and Talwar, 2011; Davies and Crane, 2003; Pelsmacker et al.,
2005; Shaw and Shiu, 2003). Some interpret this as supported by
cognitive framings built around a new ethic of care for ‘distant
strangers’ (Morgan, 2010, p. 1857). Alternatively, a more sociolog-
ically theorised analysis interprets this as part of moral identity
construction (Barnett et al., 2005), where motivation forms part
of self-reassurance over moral standing, as exemplified by the
‘warm glow’ (LeClair, 2002) associated by Fair Trade critics with
the obfuscation of actual concern for producer welfare. To develop
this concept, Varul (2009) proposes the notion of ‘‘ethical selving’’,
where consumers are able to refer to a particular area of their
behaviour identified as morally relevant (e.g. shopping and con-
sumption). However, Dickinson and Carsky (2005) argue the
remoteness between production and consumption actors is inher-
ently problematic: meaning that consumers often have limited
knowledge of agricultural process and therefore limited insight
into the implications of their purchasing decision.
Building on this understanding, it is suggested that in order to
resonate with these cultural frames, Fair Trade creates links
‘‘forged semiotically through the discursive and visual narratives
that saturate. . .[products] with politicised and ethical meanings
intended for extensive reading by consumers’’ (Goodman, 2004,p. 893). Further analysis of Fair Trade marketing finds that effective
communication strategies, which embody principles and practices
of Fair Trade in digestible and acceptable texts, are found to be fun-
damental to market growth (Golding, 2009; McDonagh, 2002). The
most specific theme is the power of a trustworthy, third-party pro-
duct label, of which the Fairtrade Mark is found to be an interna-
tional exemplar in its ability to drive the mainstream
commercialisation of ethical consumption (D’Souza et al., 2007;
Shaw and Clarke, 1999; Zadek et al., 1998). This is because a pro-
duct label concentrates the cognitive framing of a social movement
in a specific type of brand (Larceneux et al., 2012), whilst also con-
tributing directly to the multifaceted brand construction of the
physical product (Holt, 2004). The advantage of product labelling
over Alternative Trade branding strategies can be seen in the expe-rience of the WFTO, which in response to declining European sales
has finally developed a label for use on product packaging (see
above). Furthermore, research on Fair Trade marketing shows the
importance of balancing both quality and social/environmental
themes in crafting marketing communications (Bezencon and
Blili, 2010; Golding, 2009), as Northern consumers often assume
that Fair Trade products are not of the same physical quality as cor-
porate speciality alternatives (Obermiller et al., 2009).
Considering the characteristics of Fair Trade marketing in the
UK, literature suggests that this has moved through three distinct
framings in its attempt to build cognitive resonance with ethical
consumers. The first focused on the Fair Trade process to appeal
to strongly ethical consumers; a second aimed to widen appeal
by highlighting the intrinsic physical qualities of the product itself;and the third has built on identity construction through Fair Trade
1 ‘‘Fairtrade’’ (capitalised one word) is the brand name owned by Fairtrade
International. To refer to the movement or general market, and in the context of scholarly literature, the capitalised term ‘‘Fair Trade’’ (two words) is used here.
160 B. Doherty et al./ Geoforum 67 (2015) 158–171
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places (Alexander and Nicholls, 2006). Indeed, based on a cam-
paign in Garstang in the UK, the ideas of firstly Fairtrade Towns,
then schools and universities, have become an important interna-
tional marketing strategy (Samuel and Emanuel, 2012; Smith,
2015).
Aside from some discussion of Fair Trade place-making how-
ever, analysis of marketing construction has only considered the
inherent ‘‘geographical entanglements’’ of promoting South–North supply networks in limited ways. Therefore, there is value
in drawing on literature developed through the consideration of
conventional profit focused brandings (Pike, 2013; Tokatli, 2014),
but for the first time applied to ethical market creation. This liter-
ature suggests three major avenues through which geographical
entanglement can occur (Pike, 2009, p. 619). The first is the geo-
graphically definable spatial circuits of value and uneven develop-
ment that are created, and which might be understood to mirror
the identification of networks in market creation discussed above
– and their inherent power structures which drive stakeholders
for either stability or change depending on their perceived balance
of gains and costs (Fligstein and Dauter, 2007). Secondly, geo-
graphical entanglement occurs in the construction of geographical
origins, provenance and socio-spatial histories of products – and
which impacts how markets are created as branders proactively
build cognitive resonance with other network actors (such as con-
sumers) to socially construct the appeal of products. Finally, it is
noted that geographical entanglement is found in territorial and
relational spaces and places (Pike, 2009, p. 619). For the purposes
of this paper we will focus on the geographies of networks and
their representation in branding and marketing, as a shift from
South–North to South–South supply chains logically implies the
likelihood of fundamental reconfigurations.
Whilst the conceptual framework of geographical entanglement
has not been previously employed per se to Fair Trade marketing,
extant literature exposes the issues through the suggestion that
Fair Trade can re-connect producers and consumers; therefore,
unveiling both the relational, spatial and placial relations usually
obscured in the commoditisation process. At the wider scale, alarge volume of work demonstrates how economic and cultural
meanings are created using different geographical knowledges to
promote the consumption of different commodities (Crang, 1996;
Hughes and Reimer, 2004): such as, sweeping physical landscapes,
geo-historical heritage, realities of production and distribution,
discursive associations and the use of naturalistic knowledges
(Morris and Kirwan, 2010). Indeed, building on Goodman’s
(2004) recognition of a focus on geographical representation,
Smith (2013b) uses the example of Fair Trade relations between
Scotland and Malawi to suggest that despite claims made around
the power of abstract ethical appeals, these might become more
efficacious when embedded in ‘moral geographies’: created
through the transformation of spaces into places, and intercon-
nected through morally grounded relationships played out in aframework of relational ethics.
In more critical approaches to the analysis of geographic
entanglements, some authors have found origin countries pre-
sented by Fair Trade marketing as ‘destitute’ and ‘desperate’ for
Western-led redemption; therefore categorising Fair Trade dis-
courses as modern equivalents to colonial narratives, where exotic
lands are steeped in backwardness awaiting imperial salvation
(Berlan, 2008; Dolan, 2005; Goodman, 2004; Wright, 2004). In fact,
a number of authors propose the realities of production in remote
sites can actually result in new fetishes due to a reductionist scope
that omits issues of financial and technical exclusion (Freidberg,
2003; Marston, 2013); in some cases due to bureaucracy deeply
entangled in geographic classification (Smith, 2014). The general
recommendation of this work might not only be for a reconfigura-tion of the geographically embedded narratives of Fair Trade
marketing, but perhaps a more wholesale reallocation of represen-
tative power, back to the subjects of the discourses themselves
(Smith, 2013b).
However, the inescapable pervasion of South–North geographic
entanglements questions the extent to which this knowledge
either represents or offers the tools to create understanding for
those building markets in the Global South. Indeed, a study of
Fair Trade handicraft producers in Bangladesh identified FairTrade as linked to regional development and national pride around
the support of domestic craft producers (Le Mare, 2012). Here the
geographical framing of Fair Trade has to be constructed around
other identity relations, and in this case, the national context offers
inclusive as opposed to divisive imagined geographies of place in
the construction of Fair Trade markets. In Nepal, Biggs and Lewis
(2009, p. 385) highlight how producer profiles have been used to
connect consumers to producers, whilst avoiding the negative
stereotypes which often dominate Northern marketing of Fair
Trade products. Having said this, other work also shows that hand-
made processes are important in constructing a desirable set of social
qualities for Fair Trade products (Biggs and Messerschmidt, 2005).
In summary, the above literature offers a wealth of cross disci-
plinary concepts and frameworks through which to understand
Fair Trade market creation and the fundamental role of geograph-
ical entanglement embedded within it. To this end, we contribute
to the Fair Trade literature by adapting the market forces model
proposed by Beckert (2010, p. 612) to show how the social ele-
ments of market creation have combined with geographical entan-
glements to create the foundational European Fair Trade markets
(see Fig. 1). This model is then used in the analysis of the following
empirical cases, which we use to explore the new phenomenon of
ethical market creation in the Global South.
3. Methodology
The methodology that underpins this paper drew on privileged
access to Fair Trade networks composed of Fair Trade labelling
organisations, manufacturers and retailers in the Global South(Glaser, 1992). Therefore, an exploratory case study approach
was selected as the principal method of gaining in-depth informa-
tion (Yin, 2009), and we investigated the development of Fair Trade
markets in Kenya, South Africa (SA), Brazil and Nepal. These cases
were selected due to the reported emergence of Fair Trade con-
sumer markets (Fairtrade International, 2013, p. 10), and availabil-
ity of some academic research (Biggs and Lewis, 2009; Doherty,
2004; Wilkinson and Mascarenhas, 2007), but also due to the pres-
ence of divergent drivers – known to the authors due to their
engagement in practice networks.
The methods of enquiry were predominantly qualitative in
order to obtain rich contextual understanding and promote revela-
tory case insight (Mintzberg, 1979; Van Maanen, 1979). A total of7
field visits to Brazil, Kenya, South Africa and Nepal were carried outbetween May 2012 and March 2015. During this fieldwork a total
of 22 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with
informants from Fair Trade organisations, manufacturers of
Fairtrade Marked products and retailers (as detailed in Table 1).
Each of the interviews lasted around one hour, were digitally
recorded and subsequently fully transcribed. In addition, partici-
pant observation of Fair Trade practitioner events in the specific
countries2 were carried out, and totalled 11 days of observation.
Secondary data is also utilised from a range of promotional
materials and internal organisational documents, and this use of
multiple sources provided opportunities to triangulate emergent
2 Participant observation events include: three day COFTA Regional Conference,
Swaziland, May 2012; five day WFTO Biennial Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May2013 and the three day East African Fair Trade Conference in Entebbe March 2013.
B. Doherty et al./ Geoforum 67 (2015) 158–171 161
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findings. Where translation has been necessary in this data analy-
sis (for example from Portuguese to English), this has been under-
taken by the authors themselves. Finally, data was analysed
thematically: initially as informed by our literature review and
cumulative experience of 45 years working and researching the
Fair Trade movement, and also later on the basis of emerging find-
ings from the data itself.
4. Market development and Fair Trade marketing in the Global
South
4.1. Kenya
We have traced the development of the Kenyan Fair Trade mar-
ket to the early 1980s. A number of interviewees explained that
Fair Trade relationships began to emerge when sales took place
through European embassies, particularly the Dutch embassy in
Nairobi. These developments also facilitated introductions to
European Fair Trade importers. Furthermore, the Undugu Fair
Trade shop selling mainly handicrafts was set-up in the upmarket
Westland shopping area (Nairobi) in 1982. In this Southern con-text, hotel shops and embassies have been traditional network
actors and as in the North, further dedicated Fair Trade shops were
set-up by Bombolulu in Mombasa and Nairobi in 1987 (Boonman
et al., 2010, p. 19; WIEGO, 2010, p. 1). These shops along with other
Fair Trade organisations then formed in 2003 the Kenyan
Federation of Alternative Trade (KEFAT), a regional group of WFTO.
One recent pressure driving WFTO African networks to seek
domestic and regional markets, is the slowdown in demand for
Fair Trade craft goods from Europe, post the 2008–2009 financialcrisis (WFTO, 2012, p. 4). At the same time, it has been increasingly
recognised that craft goods can be appealing to the emerging
African middle classes. Reinforcing the relevance of geographical
entanglement as a lens for analysis, data suggests a ‘‘renaissance ’’
of interest in African culture as visualised in popular media, where
craft items and clothes informed by traditional textile patterns are
increasingly framed as aspirational fashions.
In 2011, Fairtrade Eastern Africa (FEA) was set-up in Kenya as
the marketing organisation for Fairtrade Marked products in East
Africa. The title of this organisation perhaps unwittingly manifests
implicit work of geographical rewriting required for South–South
trade. Whilst European licensing and marketing organisations have
opted for a-placial identities (see Relph, 1976), such as the UK’s
Fairtrade Foundation, and even the trans-placial Transfair of Germany, FEA has claimed an explicit geographical jurisdiction.
Operationally, these initial market developments were based on
potential cognitive resonance with expatriates, already exposed to
Fair Trade at home, combined with a growing Kenyan middle class
understood to be committed to the development of Fair Trade in
Africa (Fairtrade Africa, 2010a). From internal documents sourced
from FEA, the Living Standards Measures (LSM) is the primary
parameter used to identify the target Fair Trade consumers in
Kenya3. The population is divided into 17 LSMs and Fair Trade tar-
Fig. 1. Fair Trade market creation forces in European foundational markets (adapted from Beckert, 2010, p.612).
Table 1
Interviewees by country and organisation.
Context Organisational association of interviewees
Brazil Faces do Brazil, Fairtrade Town – Poços de Caldas, Fair Trade
Town – Alfenas, Fairtrade Brazil
Kenya WFTO Africa, Kenyan Federation of Alternative Trade, Fairtrade
Eastern Africa, Nakumatt supermarket, Undugu Fair Trade Shop
(Nairobi), Kick Trading (Kisumu), Dormans Coffee, Innovative
Concepts
South
Africa
Fairtrade Label South Africa (2), Bean There Coffee, Woolworths
South Africa
Nepal Children Nepal, WFTO Asia/New SADLE, Association of Craft
Producers, Women’s Skills Development Organisation, Fair Trade
Group Nepal
Global
scale
CEO of Fairtrade International, President of WFTO
3 Living Standards measure is a household data survey initiated in 1980 by the
World Bank (2012) to improve the use of household consumption data as a basis for
policy making. The database studies consumption patterns and is increasingly used
by market research agencies as a means to segment consumer markets in emergingeconomies.
162 B. Doherty et al./ Geoforum 67 (2015) 158–171
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gets LSM levels 11–17 (mainly expatriate and local upper middle
class, urban, supermarket shoppers with access to information chan-
nels). According to Fairtrade Africa (2010b) this segment is approx-
imately 6.25% of the population.
Following the establishment of a new institutional regime
under FEA, certified products could then be launched by main-
stream Kenyan retailers: Nakumatt and Chandarana (Retailing
Research Council, 2014). This was a timely move as the entry of
Fair Trade goods into these regional supermarket networks is tak-
ing place at the time when supermarket chains are rapidly expand-
ing in East and South Africa (Barrientos et al., 2015). There were
initially two local manufacturing companies that worked in part-
nership under the unifying cognitive frame of CSR: Dormans
Safari Kenyan Coffee and Kericho Kenyan tea (both companies
were also involved in exporting Fair Trade coffee and tea to
Europe). Since then, other actors have joined these networks: with
Cadburys Dairy Milk as an example of South-to-South trade, as theFairtrade cocoa is grown in Ghana and chocolate manufactured at
the Cadbury factory in South Africa, before being sold in Kenya
(Fairtrade Foundation, 2013). None of these companies are 100%
Fair Trade: for example, Dormans Safari coffee brand is only 5%
of Dormans overall business in Kenya. However, interviews with
representatives of Dormans coffee and Nakumatt supermarket
group identify the importance of the Fairtrade label as an indicator
of both quality and sustainability, thus providing credibility for
market development.
Moving on to the marketing, or what might be termed ‘cogni-
tive bridging’ between sellers and buyers of Fair Trade in Kenya,
an informant from FEA explains their marketing is different from
Fair Trade in Europe; ‘‘we are not about helping the poor, the mes-
sage is more about supporting producers. We say; ‘Show your lovefor Africa, Buy Fairtrade!’ i.e. cocoa from West Africa. Also for
Kenyan Fairtrade products, it is nationalistic for Kenyan’s also’’.
This is manifest in strong and overt geographical associations that
construct the inclusive imagined geography of Africa (see Image 1);
and whilst focus on pride in national products rests on geographi-
cal ‘othering’, it does so through a focus on internal pride and qual-
ity, rather than drawing on paternalistic identities embedded in
conditions of need.
This positioning of Fair Trade is also supportive of Africa’s
development more generally. Image 1 places the emphasis on the
direct agency of the consumer and links it to positive change both
to the producer community and the environment. An informant at
FEA explains, ‘‘I think it’s really empowering for the producers. So
the fact that we’ve launched in East Africa and that the Kenyan teagrower can see their own product in their own supermarket with
the Fairtrade Mark, suddenly it closes the circle and begins to make
sense to producers’’.
However, despite the use of traditional African imagery, the
overall visual construction of the consumer still reflects the (urban)
modern, upper-middle class. Professionally modelled, aspirational
images of consumers are contrasted with a more ‘authentic’ repre-
sentation of less materially well off rural producers. This is partic-
ularly marked on the pages of the website that discuss Fairtrade in
Action: where a ‘raw’ photo from a producer group is contrasted
with a ‘staged’ image of consumers in the upper right corner (see
Image 2). This then supports the view that as multi-spatial net-
works of actors and stakeholders spread across different media,
or as here over individual pages within a unitary website, brands
can constitute varying geographical entanglements: at one locale
inclusive (we are African) whilst divisive and binary at another
(you are a consumer, he/she is a producer).
4.2. South Africa (SA)
In contrast to Kenya, the Fair Trade handicraft sector in SA has
seen limited market development (Fararik and Law, 2006, p. 9).
Instead, Fair Trade started in SA in 2004, with the set-up of
non-profit organisation Fair Trade Tourism, targeting tourists from
Europe. Market development continued with the founding of Bean
There Coffee (BTC) in 2005, a 100% Fair Trade organisation based in
SA, who commercialised fairly traded coffee sourced from produc-
ers in East and Central Africa before the Fairtrade label was avail-
able in SA. BTC targeted distribution at non-nationals and tourist
safari lodges, similar to Dormans coffee in Kenya. It was only later
in 2008 that Fairtrade Label South Africa (FTLSA) emerged follow-
ing funding from Dutch international NGO Solidaridad. Here again,there was a clear geographical jurisdiction, which in turn built on
the national development and black empowerment discourses that
pervade certification for South African producer organisations
(Herman, 2012). The first Fairtrade certified products available in
Johannesburg’s supermarkets were two wines (Fairhills from
Origin Wine, and Thandi from the Cape wine region), but these
were also joined by a coffee brand commercialised by BTC (stocked
by Pick n Pay supermarkets), which had become the first entirely
African Fair Trade supply chain not to include any European actors.
These developments again appear to demonstrate the importance
of third-party certification institutions in the creation of ethical
markets.
More recently Fair Trade in SA has continued to mainstream:
with Pick n Pay supermarkets stocking a range of Fairtrade prod-ucts as part of their CSR strategy; Makro supermarkets listing
Image 1. Fairtrade Eastern Africa (2014) webpage images.
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seven new Fairtrade wines; and Mug and Bean coffee chain decid-
ing to switch to Fairtrade coffee. This is taking place at the same
time as sub-Saharan Africa is seeing a rapid expansion of its
regional supermarket chains (Barrientos et al., 2015), and therefore
the Fair Trade market has grown with the expansion of conven-
tional corporate retail networks. Regarding the out of home sector,
SA Airways are now serving Fairtrade wine and the Protea Hotel
group switched to Fairtrade coffee in 2013. FTLSA launched in
2012 a Fairtrade at Work Campaign to stimulate sales via compa-
nies. Another key retailer for Fairtrade products in SA is
Woolworths, who supply their own labelled Fairtrade certified cof-
fee via their own 100 cafes. A company representative explained
that ‘‘our move into Fair Trade is part of our overall CSR commit-
ment to sustainability as we are members of the UN GlobalCompact’’. The result of this market development means that cer-
tified Fairtrade sales have grown in SA from £1.026 m in 2010 to
£16.36 m by 2013 (FTLSA, 2014).
The target consumer profile for FTLSA (2014) is the LSM cate-
gories 7–10, which represents 12–15 million people in SA (20% of
the population). More specifically, according to one informant at
FTLSA; ‘‘our consumer profile is aged 18–45, highly educated and
living in either Capetown or Johannesburg’’. The informant goes
on to suggest that place-based campaigning will play less of the
role in SA, explaining that; ‘‘we won’t succeed in the same way
as European Fairtrade, you won’t have people dressing-up in a
Fairtrade banana suit and going to campaign on the street here
in SA. Fair Trade will develop more from the business perspective
by bringing out products that are good value for money becauseit’s both good quality and sustainable local African produce’’. This
framing of sustainability is further supported by a new initiative
taking place in SA called ‘The Power of You’, a new stakeholder
partnership formed between FTLSA, the Marine Stewardship
Scheme (MSC), the Forestry Stewardship Scheme (FSC) and Fair
Trade Tourism, with the aim to promote sustainable behaviour
change (FTLSA, 2015). Another local marketing initiative which
has helped promote cognitive geographical framings is the
‘Proudly South African’ campaign, which certifies products manu-
factured in SA (Proudly South African, 2015). Although this has
reportedly stimulated the consumption of some locally produced
goods, FTLSA suggest that this is probably less applicable for
Fairtrade products such as wines, as consumers already recognise
the geographical elements of their moral claims (manifest in theFairhills wine brand).
In SA, we see again an inclusive geographical association but
which falls alongside an emphasis on product quality within the
branding and marketing of Fair Trade products. The conscious
reconfiguration of geographical entanglement further echoes the
above case of Kenya, as one informant from FTLSA commented:
‘‘Our marketing is different from Europe; we don’t do poor farmers
here. . .as it does not work. Poor farmers are all around, its everyday
business here. It does not touch hearts as it does in Europe’’. This
conscious perception of the need to focus on inclusive relational
and territorialized community is also overtly and strongly high-
lighted by internal brand guidelines of FTLSA, see Table 2.
This geographical entanglement is also mirrored by individual
Fair Trade brands, which also aim to use their local origins in mar-
keting, through the immediate connection of physical quality tothe specifics of the imagined normative geographies of the conti-
nent. For example, a BTC informant explains, ‘‘Bean There Coffee
is a story of pioneering adventure to source coffee from the deepest
most beautiful parts of Africa. We get tired of people generalising
that Africa is full of famine, we simply love this continent, it’s won-
derful, and has a natural beauty, wonderful people. Our coffee is
the best coffee on the best continent! Rather than support us
because it’s the right thing to do’’.
4.3. Brazil
In contrast to SA and Kenya, Fairtrade International has had less
influence on the development of the domestic Fair Trade market in
Image 2. Geographical binaries: Fairtrade Eastern Africa (2015) webpage images.
Table 2
Brand guidelines for fairtrade marketing in SA ( FTLSA, 2013).
Do’s Don’ts
Happy Farmers proud of produce Begging people and hands (avoid
old development images)
They are business people Typical image of poor African
people and living conditions
Pride in African culture and inspiring
African imagery
Telling sad story
Beautiful looking products and raw
product
Unappealing products
Look at future with positivity Talking about past and what is
wrong with the world
Use words that convey dignity, power,
togetherness, excitement
Avoid words such as hope, help,
poor
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Brazil. In 2011, Fairtrade Canada did support the development of a
marketing organisation called; Associacao Brasiliera de Comercio
Justo (AB-CJ – the Brazilian Fair Trade Association) to make the
Fairtrade Mark available for Brazilian retailers (Fairtrade
International, 2011). However, the technological and export focus
of Fairtrade International reduced early support from family farms,
which has taken some time to rebuild (Wilkinson and
Mascarenhas, 2007, p. 161). Progress has also been slow, giventhe lack of financial support for the development of Fairtrade insti-
tutions (Fairtrade representative). Therefore, there are only still a
few Fairtrade products available in Brazil: including options from
Starbucks and Wal-Mart (Starbucks, 2014), as well as nationally
produced brands of roasted coffee, nuts, honey and wine from
other outlets (Fairtrade stakeholder).
In place of a strong drive from a Fairtrade marketing organisa-
tion, Brazilian markets have been constructed by broader net-
works. During the 1990s, religious organisations facilitated the
commercialisation of handicrafts and food products, under first-
and third-party Fair Trade governance, for export but then later
internal markets, and were supported by wider networks sympa-
thetic to the ethical agenda of the Fair Trade concept (ICLEI,
2006, p. 8; Mundaréu, 2014; Wilkinson and Mascarenhas, 2007,
p. 162). Particular support came from the solidarity economy, in
the 1980s influenced by European NGOs promoting the democrati-
sation of economic activities tightly controlled by military rule
(ICLEI, 2006, p. 5). The strong consumer movement also created
demand for more socially and environmentally positive products
and there was a natural cognitive resonance with the Fair Trade
message.
Despite initial tensions between overlapping social movements,
an informant at Faces do Brasil felt that ‘‘it’s a common concept in
Brazil that Fair Trade is an instrument to foster the solidarity econ-
omy by helping solidarity enterprises’’. This narrative emerges
from a growing alliance that began around 2002, and was for-
malised in 2004 through the legal registration of the Forum for
the Articulation of Ethical and Solidarity Commerce in Brazil – or
Faces do Brasil (FACES) – as a partnership of 13 constituent organ-isations: national and international NGOs, government agencies,
rural trade unions and farmers’ networks (Wilkinson and
Mascarenhas, 2007, p. 167). The primary aim of FACES is to ‘‘foster
the creation of an environment that favours the building of a
Brazilian Fair Trade system to promote equity’’ (ICLEI, 2006, p. 8).
Strong emphasis is placed on adapting international Fair Trade
principles for the national context (FACES do Brasil, 2014b) and
FACES has developed a Sistema Nacional de Comércio Justo e
Solidário (SNCJS – National Fair Trade System).
The most distinct feature of Brazilian efforts to establish a
domestic Fair Trade market is its direct backing by the State as a
significant network actor shaping the institutional context of the
market. This was first facilitated by the formation of an
Inter-ministerial Working Group (April 2006), composed of civicand governmental representatives of the Solidarity Economic
Department and Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Rural
Development and Ministry of Agriculture. The proposal for a
SNCJS was formally established through Presidential Decree (Law
7358), November 2010, and is therefore, the strongest government
commitment to Fair Trade anywhere in the world (FACES do Brasil,
2014a). Operationally, the SNCJS establishes a variety of first- and
third-party accreditation mechanisms for both organisational and
product certification. Moreover, there are plans for State credit
provision to support the certification process and even more radi-
cally, it is proposed that government will create significant mar-
kets for Fair Trade through public procurement. This proposal isbased on current legislation that requires 30% of school food to
be bought from small farms (see Sonnino et al., 2014), and it is
hoped that procurement is ‘‘not only from small farm producers
but also from Fair Trade certified enterprises’’ (Faces do Brasil rep-
resentative). This would then start to mirror, and indeed poten-
tially go beyond, the role that state institutions have played in
creating a market for Fair Trade in the European context ( Smith,
2011).
Despite the identified potential, there has not yet been any con-
certed marketing effort to raise the awareness of SNCJS or Fair
Trade goods. According to one informant, ‘‘there are campaigns
from the solidarity economy movement. . .not targeted at con-
sumers, but targeted to let people know the solidarity economy
exists’’. However, so far the FACES has not mirrored the proactive
focus on geographic specificity – with the government certification
program driven by a national development agenda that constructs
a strong role for small farmers in feeding the people (Wilkinson
and Mascarenhas, 2007). Instead, the FACES website adopts a
rather a-placial and largely bureaucratic aesthetic, with the limited
imagery focused around the coalition of actors, rather than geo-
graphically relational and spatial texts (see Image 3).
Having said this, stakeholders in Poços de Caldas obtained recog-
nition by Fairtrade networks as the first Fairtrade Town in the
Global South. Here there has been strong recognition for the value
of a place-based campaign by the local government, particularly
the local Mayor. According to the chair of the steering group, mar-
keting focuses on the opportunity to support new generations of
Brazilians to continue working on the land, under socially just con-
ditions; a branding position strongly intertwined with the imag-ined geographies of rural idle and noble hard work.
4.4. Nepal
As in Kenya, NGOs have long worked to economically empower
marginalised producers in Nepal. In 1975, Women’s Skills
Development Project (now Women’s Skills Development
Organization) was established, followed by the Association of
Craft Producers (ACP) in 1984. Both emerged out of a joint
Government-Donor initiated women’s empowerment project.
There was a consensus amongst informants that a key motivation
for starting these ATOs was to increase their autonomy by reducing
dependency on donor funding. Other Fair Trade organisations in
Nepal also have their roots in social welfare organisations with
income generation being one of their objectives. Many focus on
women’s economic empowerment but others focus on the needs
of other marginalized groups such as street children.
Image 3. Network focused image from FACES website.
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Links with volunteers from Northern countries have played an
important role in the development of Fair Trade in Nepal by shar-
ing design, training and marketing expertise with the ATOs and
also through developing connections with consumers in both the
Global North and within the expat communities in Kathmandu.
An informant from Women’s Skills Development Organization
(WSDO) explains ‘‘events held by VSO volunteers at the British
Embassy in the initial stages played a significant role in providingsales opportunities’’. Like Kenya, expatriate customers have played
a crucial role in market development. In addition to this, interna-
tional networks have also played an important role in the emer-
gence of Fair Trade in Nepal. One notable example was the visit
of Mohamad Islam (Oxfam Bangladesh), who shared his knowledge
of ECOTA (Bangladesh Fair Trade Forum) with a number of fair
trade organisations in Nepal. A key informant at ACP explained that
‘‘at the start we were working in isolation but when both
Mohammad Islam came to Nepal in 1993 with the representative
from ECOTA in Bangladesh, we thought if they can do this then
why can’t we’’. This visit was cited by all respondents as being
the inspiration for the formation of Fair Trade Group Nepal
(FTGN) in 1993.
FTGN is a consortium of fair trading organisations promoting
the socio-economic advancement of marginalized producers across
Nepal and joined WFTO in 1997. FTGN mainly works with handi-
craft producers but more recently with agro-food and non-timber
forest product organisations. The organisation has recently been
the country coordinator for WFTO-Asia (the regional chapter of
the global network). Engaging in this network has been crucial to
the development of Fair Trade in Nepal as it has provided impor-
tant networking and marketing opportunities for its members, as
well as adding credibility to the Fair Trade movement within
Nepal. However, within the WFTO Asia network, established Fair
Trade groups are all country specific and market their products
locally or export to Northern markets rather than regionally. This
exemplifies the geographical entanglement of the Nepali Fair
Trade brand, as the multifaceted construction of quality is strongly
linked to rejuvenating and valuing national handicraft traditions.Establishing retail outlets, such as Dhukhuti in Kathmandu is
seen as important in creating brand awareness in Nepal and has
helped increase the domestic Fair Trade sales. It is estimated that
40% of sales are now to the local market, with a shift from tourist
and expat consumers to the emerging middle classes of Nepal. The
Asian Development Bank estimates the middle classes at 21.89% of
the population (Bhattarai, 2012). An informant from WFTO Asia
noted that ‘‘the number of Nepali people visiting the shops is grow-
ing, mostly upper middle class people. The very rich elite however
go to the very expensive shops in Kathmandu’’. He went on to
explain that ‘‘the message we use when we sell to customers is
the same, the only thing we adapt is buy local and promote local
for local middle class customers’’. This demonstrates a need to
build a new ethic of care for the ‘local’ rather than the ‘distantstranger’. As one key informant at FTGN noted ‘‘often the middle
class consumers will go straight to the producer to buy, especially
for handicraft products as they like to have things made for
themselves’’.
Whilst producer profiles are used within the shops to establish
a link between the products and the economic and social impact of
Fair Trade, the associated social mission of the NGO is also a key
USP. One informant explained ‘‘it isn’t only the Nepalese authentic-
ity that is our main selling point it’s because we are supporting the
whole environment for the child, so the message is very much
linked to the work that we do as an NGO’’. However, another key
USP, equally if not more important to the local market is the
emphasis placed on the quality of the products and the fact they
are ‘Made in Nepal’ as opposed to India or China. An informantfrom ACP notes that ‘‘During the past two decades we have started
to appreciate the quality and value of our work’’. It is the product
quality which features prominently on the ACP web site (Image 4).
Examining the brand construction of FTGN, it can be noted that
in contrast to other cases presented here, the network has
expressly incorporated visual references to Nepali national iden-
tity, which contrasts with logos elsewhere which provide more
generic iconography (in SA and Kenya, for example, taking the
Fairtrade International logo). As the other images on the websiterevolve (central panel), it is notable they offer vignettes of wider
activity, also directly linked to brand construction based on
national geographies. For example, the campaign March held for
WFTO’s World Fair Trade in 2014 (Image 5) incorporated coordi-
nated dress which clearly connects to the global colours (blues
and greens) of the WFTO. However, the clothing which was specif-
ically designed for the occasion deliberately offers a reconfigura-
tion of the traditional national sari dress. Again branding is
strongly connected to a national geographically defined identity,
within which the principles of Fair Trade are literally and
metaphorically embedded – featuring on placards carried by the
female only participants depicted in the photo.
5. Discussion and conclusions
Thepaper hasdiscussed theconstruction of Fair Trade markets in
South Africa, Kenya, Brazil and Nepal. We have employed the theo-
retical lens of market creation, but also that of geographical entan-
glement with an emphasis on developing an account of how space
and place are embedded in both substantive supply network prac-
tices (institutions and networks) and their associated discourses
(cognitive frames and themarketing in which these are embedded).
Based on this approach, the paper has provided a foundational
account of the empirical developments in order to address the lack
of published knowledge of Southern Fair Trade consumer markets.
Here our research reinforces the view that intra-Southern Fair
Trade is growing significantly, principally within national markets
(handicrafts in Nepal, Wine in SA and small farmer agri-food and
craft products in Brazil) but also across State boundaries (coffeeand chocolate in Africa). A summary of our findings by market
can be found in Table 3, and overall, these disrupt the dominant
geographical entanglements accepted in most academic analysis
of Fair Trade markets, which are usually understood to revolve
around binary connections between ‘Southern producers’ and
‘Northern consumers’ (Lekakis, 2013, p. 13).
Building on the theorisation of supply chain typologies (Doherty
et al., 2012; Reed, 2009), our findings identify three modes through
which South–South Fair Trade is being constructed (see Table 4
below). Here an important recognition is that in some cases, raw
ingredients are processed and repackaged in the Global North,
before being re-exported to Southern markets: for example Tate
and Lyle sugar from Malawi. This is important, as with a South–
North–South value chain distribution, it could be that in additionto allowing Northern actors to maintain the extraction of process-
ing value from Southern raw materials, there is a further South–
North resource transfer, as profits from Southern sales are also
repatriated to Northern economies. Here the discourse of fairness,
as in other examples (Fridell, 2004b; Valkila et al., 2010), might
again obscure the reality that practices are of disproportionate
benefit to Northern actors. However, with other supply chains
(for example Cadbury’s Chocolate, Dorman’s Safari Coffee,
Kericho Tea and handicraft production), all value is added within
Southern economies. Given this diversity, we suggest that further
research using value chain analysis will be important in under-
standing the true potential of South–(North)–South Fair Trade sup-
ply chains as a development tool.
In terms of market construction, research clearly shows thatdespite some common connections through international
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certification bodies and networks, Fair Trade sales have developed
in different ways depending on the interaction of institutions, net-works and cognitive framing: and therefore broadly reinforces the
wider theory deployed here, that specifics of market creation
emerge from the dynamic interaction of networks, institutionsand cognitive frames. For example, in Brazil, the State has become
Image 4. Website-association of craft producers.
Image 5. Website-fair trade Group Nepal.
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proactively involved in the construction of markets through the
creation of domestic accreditation; although, the coordinated pub-
lic sensitisation and marketing has largely been undertaken by
partner civil society organisations, such as the Poços de Caldas
Fairtrade Town campaign. In Nepal, it has been ATOs that have cre-
ated supply networks to include retail engagement and marketing
for craft production; although this has been achieved with support
from the national and regional networks of the WFTO. In Kenya
and South Africa, whilst craft based Fair Trade ATOs have estab-lished markets in Kenya, there is a more recent, and significant
push from Fairtrade institutions on the continent to create markets
for commodity goods: primarily by drawing mainstream super-
markets and businesses (e.g. SA Airways) into Fairtrade networks
through the provision of product certification. For this reason,
our research reinforces the view that the Fair Trade movement is
far from homogenous (Fridell, 2004a), and further helps to dispel
the notion that Fairtrade International is solely responsible for
Fair Trade market creation.
In relation to customers, the emergence of markets in Kenya
and Nepal have initially been driven by the expat and NGO com-
munity, with increasing support from the local upper
middle-classes based in urban areas. Although, Fair Trade in
Brazil has been adopted more readily by those with the economiccapacity and political knowledge, a key objective of the national
movement has been to ensure that Fair Trade does not remain an
elite market segment, and is instead embedded alongside the
wider solidarity economy. The active involvement of the State in
Brazil may hold invaluable lessons for other Southern producing/-
consuming countries and could indeed provide a model for
enhancing local economic development.
The findings of this research also build on the existing theorisa-
tion of market creation, and have introduced the idea that private
accreditation can contribute to the institutional composition of
new ethical markets: as labelling provides credibility for brands
and assurance to consumers (D’Souza et al., 2007). This is shown
in both the positive outcomes of Fairtrade labelling and through
the recognition of product labels acknowledged by WFTO net-works, which are culminating in the launch of their own version
in the near future. Also in SA, a range of social and eco-labels
(‘The Power of You’ initiative) have formed a new network to pro-
mote the concept of sustainable behaviour. Furthermore in Kenya
and South Africa, MNCs and regional supermarkets are supporting
Fair Trade motivated by the cognitive resonance between the Fair
Trade message and their growing understanding of sustainability
and CSR. This appears to support the work by Ariztia et al.
(2014), which identifies CSR initiatives as a key driver in ethical
consumption in other parts of the Global South. Moreover, itunderlines analysis in other literatures which emphasises the
importance of the values held by business decisions makers: and
shows that the cognitive frames of business actors are equally
important in the market construction process.
Aside from the mainstream spatial concerns of economic geog-
raphy, the lens of ‘geographical entanglement’ (Pike, 2011, 2013)
has also allowed an emphasis on geographical representation in
Fair Trade marketing, as it attempts to resonate and influence cer-
tain cognitive framings held by network actors. Here, we conclude
that most Southern Fair Trade marketing activities have largely
avoided the construction of ‘imagined geographies’ pervaded by
poverty, and therefore engendering ethical obligations based on
binary relations emerging from geographical ‘othering’. Instead,
most geographical discourses aspire to, and in many cases succeedin being inclusive as opposed to divisive. Moral geographies are
here constructed on the basis of inclusive relational identities, in
some cases directed at abstract collective notions of development;
as is found to be the case in Kenya and SA.
This reconfiguration of Fair Trade marketing in the Global South
might therefore be seen as avoiding criticisms from those who call
for less patriarchal representations of producers in Fair Trade’s cog-
nitive framing (Berlan, 2008; Goodman, 2004; Wright, 2004). In
contrast, there is an emphasis on pride, dignity, and beautiful land-
scapes in the visual imagery used to market Fairtrade. With refer-
ence to Table 2, this is in fact strict policy in the case of Fairtrade
Label South Africa. Here branding might be better understood
through the lens of ‘locality foods’ as they are deployed by alterna-
tive food networks in Europe and North America: where the originof food is projected as an identifiable geographical provenance
Table 3
Fair trade market development in the Global South summary of case studies.
Country Fair trade certification Target consumer Fair trade market structure Key products
Kenya Fairtrade International &WFTO Wealthy middle classes, expats and
tourists. Target LSM groups 10–17
Emerged with Fair Trade craft pioneers
Undugu, Bombla in embassies then own Fair
Trade shops
Dormans Safari Kenyan
Coffee and Kericho
Kenyan tea
Limited Government
involvement
Now entered the mainstream with
manufacturers and supermarket retailers e.g.
Nakamutt
Cadburys Dairy Milk, Tate
and Lyle sugar Crafts and
artisan products
South Africa Fairtrade International Upper middle income (Higher LSM
groups 7–10), with higher education,
young 18–45 and Urban
Commenced with Fair Trade pioneers such as
Bean There Coffee
Bean There Coffee and
Fairhills & Thandi wines
Limited Government
involvement
Now entered the mainstream with Pick n Pay
supermarkets and Woolworths
Woolworths private label
coffee
Also business to business via companies such
as Protea Hotels and SA Airways
Nepal WFTO label Tourists, NGO workers, expats. Plus
local middle class and elite
Mainly in local Fair Trade retail stores and
exports to European WFTO members
Handicrafts, puppets,
bags, home furnishing,
etc.NGO led Handicraft Fairs in Kathmandu and Embassies
Some government involvement Led by WFTO pioneers Association of Craft
Producers (ACP) to provide social welfare for
disadvantaged women and children
Brazil Publically administered State
certification system
Upper middle classes but also
solidarity street markets that target
lower income
Mainly via Fair Trade stores and solidarity
movement street markets
Handicraft, clothes and
food
Incipient development of Fairtrade International
certification for domestic
markets
Public bodies such as schools
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(Maye, 2008); accompanied by emotional and psychological bonds
formed between an individual and a particular notion of place
(Brown and Raymond, 2007), and the producer with whom the
product originates (Marsden et al., 2000). Indeed, although moral
geographies of the Global South, ‘‘peddled by charities and the
broader development industry. . .[might] secure donations, it is
argued [that] they [also] deter more sustainable investments’’,
and that potentially more positive reconfigurations could reduce
tensions over commodification (Browning, 2014). For this reason,there is further evidence to support the point of Blowfield (1999,
p. 767) that unless there is a ‘‘shift in decision making from the
North to South, ethical trade will at best be paternalistic and at
worst harmful to those it is intended to benefit’’.
Having said this, we also highlight that identity and power dif-
ferences remain complex, even where decision making is located
within the Global South. For example, binary geographies still
emerge from the marketing analysis of southern middle classes/e-
lites: for example with the contrasting images of (poor) rural pro-
ducers as recipients and (wealthy) urban consumers adopting
responsible consumption as a lifestyle addition. This supports the
ideas of Brunori (2007, p. 51) that locality foods introduce a ‘‘sep-
aration between the world of production and the world of con-
sumption’’ and argues that ‘‘consumers choose locality products
because they perceive them as coming from a certain place and
possessing well defined and differentiated characteristics’’.
Therefore, this questions the extent to which the relocation of
power, identified by some in other Fair Trade practices (Smith,
2013b), as possible; and instead suggests the importance of focus-
ing on more nuanced understandings of power to shape the nature
of geographical entanglements.
Therefore through our case studies, we are able to contribute to
the Fair Trade literature by adapting the market forces model pro-
posed by Beckert (2010, p.612) to show how the social forces of market creation (institutions, networks and cognitive framing)
have been combined with geographical entanglements to create
these new Fair Trade markets (see Fig. 2). The framework also
highlights the similarities and differences of both Southern Fair
Trade market creation and marketing compared to the European
foundational markets shown in Fig. 1.
Finally, there are a number of practical implications from this
study for other stakeholders in emerging economies planning to
develop their own local Fair Trade markets including: the impor-
tance of both WFTO and Fairtrade International certification bodies
to provide credibility; the importance of connecting to expat and
NGO communities in the early stages of market development;
Fair Trade helps MNCs and supermarkets to achieve sustainability
goals, the importance of different routes to market development
and the importance of encoding locality in marketing
Table 4
Modes of market construction.
Mode Geography of supply network Examples
(1) Long established Fair Trade organisations that have been building local markets but better known
for exports to the North
South–South, largely intra-
national, domestic, trade
Undugu (Kenya), ACP,
WSDO Nepal
(2) Companies with existing certified products never before available in Southern markets have
obtained licences for South–South Fair Trade
South–South Cadbury chocolate
(South Africa)
South–North–South Tate and Lyle sugar
(3) New dedicated Fair Trade ‘lead companies’ in emerging economies, sourcing raw materials from
Southern producers to supply to Southern markets
South–South, intra- and inter-
national trade
Bean There Coffee
(South Africa)
Fig. 2. Fair Trade market creation forces in Southern Fair Trade markets (adapted from Beckert, 2010, p.612).
B. Doherty et al./ Geoforum 67 (2015) 158–171 169
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communications. It also appears that the Fair Trade actors in Brazil
and other emerging markets for Fair Trade could learn from their
Kenyan and South African counterparts in developing Fair Trade
marketing communications, particularly the use of marketing
guidelines which aim to avoid the patriarchal representation of
producers. In addition, there are a number of future research
opportunities including consumer research to assess the impact
of different geographical entanglements outlined in this study.We recommend this to be carried out in partnership with both
Southern scholars and practitioners. Such a research agenda would
also contribute to the extension of analysis required to understand
if the context is producing a de-fetishizing or re-fetishizing of con-
sumption (Hudson and Hudson, 2003; Marston, 2013).
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