STUDY ON THE EVOLUTION OF FAIR TRADE AND ITS ROLE IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

One of the great current challenges at the global level is represented by finding sustainable production systems that ensure both social, economic and environmental sustainability, while at the same time pursuing the optimal provision of production, trade or consumption indicators. Globalization is the one that affected those producers who, not having access to alternative markets, had to sell their goods at much lower prices, thus making the very principles of equity and efficiency affected. The solution was represented by the practice of fair trade and the application of sustainable supply systems, which represent ways to solve these shortcomings. This paperanalyzes the situation of fair trade worldwide and its evolution for the period 2012-2020. The research methodology assumed the collection of data, their processing and analysis with the help of some statistical indicators such as: the number of Fairtrade organizations, the number of Fairtrade farmers, the number of workers in Fairtrade organizations, the proportion of women involved in Fairtrade activities, the areas intended for obtaining Fairtrade productions, Fairtrade productions, premiums granted in Fairtrade. The data highlighted the fact that worldwide, during the analyzed period, there was a continuous increase in fair trade, the increase being over 65% in terms of the number of producer organizations. The number of farmers reached over 1.77 million in 2020, this being the result of understanding the role of affiliation to this form of trade. The largest number of producers participating in fair trade are producers of coffee, tea or cocoa, their share being, in the analyzed period, between 86-92%. The paper highlights the fact that the emergence and development of fair trade represented a way of supporting farmers and agricultural workers in developing countries,this can be done both by the political environment, but also by society. Although the application of these measures has contributed to the increase in the standard of living, to the respect of the rights of farmers and workers, equally with the principles of sustainable development, the weight of fair trade in all trade, proves the fact that it is still carried out on a small scale, as there is a need for the development yes, with the aim of reducing global poverty..