BONN – Fairtrade is to evolve all of its standards in a bid to better help farmers, workers and businesses address their most pressing social, environmental, and economic challenges.
All of the non-profit’s generic standards – including the Small-scale Producer Organisations (SPO), Hired Labour Organisations (HLO), and Trader standards, as well as all the product standards related to agricultural production – will be updated.
We know the world is shifting, we see the pressure farmers and companies are under, and we will be there supporting them
“We know the world is shifting, we see the pressure farmers and companies are under, and we will be there supporting them with evolved standards that meet their practical needs as well as the requirements for a trade system that is fair and just,” said Marike Runneboom de Peña, interim CEO of Fairtrade International.
Fairtrade says the multi-year programme to update the standards is a strategic priority, supporting its goal to increase the value it provides to farmers and workers, businesses, and consumers.
The aim is for farmers and workers to be able to prioritise their actions to respond to the social, environmental and economic challenges they face locally and gain recognition for other relevant certifications they hold, reducing duplication and effort.
Meanwhile companies and licensees would be able to more easily demonstrate their commitments and results in building resilient supply chains and the actions they are taking to meet relevant human rights and environmental regulations.
The priorities are for the evolved standards to:
- embed human rights and environmental practices to ensure producers and companies can demonstrate actions they are taking to improve farmers’ and workers’ livelihoods, ensure fair working conditions, safeguard the environment and build resilient supply chains
- adopt a risk-based approach to social and environmental topics drawing on Fairtrade’s comprehensive ‘risk map’ to support producers to focus on what matters
- support producers and traders to build stronger systems to implement and manage effective action, increase transparency and demonstrate measurable results
- be made more user-friendly by reducing the number of standards, streamlining requirements and making it clearer how requirements support meaningful action.
The work is already underway in collaboration with Fairtrade’s three regional producer networks, 25 national Fairtrade organisations and marketing organisations, and its third-party certifier Flocert.
It plans to engage key stakeholders throughout the process, including a full public consultation in 2026. Fairtrade is encouraging farmers, workers, partners and all other stakeholders to take part.
Fairtrade, which claims its standards are the most trusted by consumers, expects to publish the new, evolved versions in 2027, and that certification against them will begin by 2028.
