Beloved by vegan neo-hippies in California and socially conscious shoppers in the UK alike, Fairtrade branded products have struggled to gain popularity even in Asia’s most well-developed markets.
Compared to the annual per capita Fairtrade spend in the UK, £6.50 (US$12.80), the £0.50 per capita spent on Fairtrade products in Japan suggests that maturity of consumer markets is not enough to increase ethical consumerism.
Those who actively seek out Fairtrade produce in Asia frequently find that available goods are imported from either the US or the UK, with no change in origin, design or selection of brands. Asian markets are clearly not the intended audience for these goods.
How can Fairtrade-branded products mimic the success they’ve enjoyed elsewhere?
“The main problem for Fairtrade in Hong Kong at least, is that people don’t know what it is,” says Anthony Chiu, director of Fairtrade Power, a driving force behind the Hong Kong’s growing group of Fairtrade activists. Though often associated with organic farming techniques, Fairtrade is a wider concept aimed at giving producers - be they farmers or artisans - a fair share of the wealth generated by the end product of their work.
At least in Hong Kong, consumer awareness of Fairtrade is growing. “In 2005, only about five per cent of audiences I gave seminars to knew about the concept - today, that figure is between 10 to 15 per cent,” says Chiu.
Volunteer work, however worthy, is struggling to create a real groundswell of interest.
“Research shows that people in Asia, as in other parts of the world, consider sustainability more important than economic development - but that figure drops drastically when they have to go out of their way to do something about it,” says Chris Beaumont, CEO at Grey Asia-Pacific. “It’s too hard for consumers to find Fairtrade products at the moment - we really need to get these products out to the mainstream supermarkets,” says Keith Wong, communications officer at Oxfam Hong Kong.
Michael McComb, CEO of TBWA subsidiary The Disruption Consultancy, notes that widespread accessibility is a key to success, but that branding and buy-in needs to be effective if Fairtrade is to gain the momentum necessary to maintain prominence.
Associating the brand with charity, though tempting, might prove a double-edged sword. “Working with Fair Taste, a company set up by former Greenpeace activist Puifung Leung in Hong Kong, we’ve found that emphasising quality of the produce, rather than speaking exclusively about ideas of social justice, is a much more effective way of communicating Fairtrade ideas to consumers in Asia,” says McComb.
Similar branding exercises have proved successful for organic produce, where quality - and in some cases luxury - are prioritised as selling points, rather than the tree-hugging approach favoured in Western markets.
“Another important consideration is that Fairtrade products don’t actually have to be that much more expensive than non-Fair products; it’s about distribution of payment, not about consumers paying much more,” McComb adds.
Another way in which Fairtrade can increase its take-up in Asia is through allying itself with the calls for increased corporate responsibility among the region’s still-booming economies. Only a small portion of genuinely Fairtrade produce can improve a company’s profile.
Starbucks, for instance, is often acclaimed for its Fairtrade profile, despite the fact that insiders claim only about 10 to 15 per cent of the beans used in the coffee conglomerate are actually Fairtrade.
