Fair Trade is a voluntary program utilized by coffee importers and food companies to create an alternative market for traditionally disadvantaged producers in developing countries, usually small scale farmers. The components include:

• Targeted purchasing of coffee through democratically organized farmer
  co-operatives;
  
• Agreed upon commodity floor prices that provide for a dignified
  livelihood;
  
• Direct exports by producers;
  
• A promise by importers to make affordable credit available to the farmer
  cooperatives;
  
• A world-wide network of non-profit certifying organizations;
  
• A fee paid by importers and wholesalers to cover the cost of
  certification;
  
• A seal that assures consumers that the product was fairly traded.
  

Your purchase of fairly traded coffee helps build pride, independence and community empowerment for small farmers and their families. A coffee processing plant in El Salvador, community stores in Colombia, the training of doctors in Mexico, new schools in Peru - these are examples of initiatives co-ops have taken in their own communities with the income from Fair Trade.