Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach to empowering developing country producers and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods.

Fair Trade gives the producers, usually individual artisans or collectives, ability to sell their products in markets which they otherwise would not be able to access. The size, geographical remoteness, poor telecommunications access, language barrier or lack of credit rating and traditional corporate structure would in a standard trading relationship present a barrier for importers to work with these artisans. Within the fair trade framework this barrier is overcome as a part of the fair trade relationship and in the interest of working with marginalized producers.