Official Development Assistance

For decades, fair trade has empowered producers to receive better incomes by exporting raw goods. There is, however, an opportunity to support producer-led projects that add value to raw goods at origin. This has the potential to further empower producers and co-ops in the global south and open international and domestic markets to shelf-ready fair trade products.

We want to see our federal government:

• Support the formation and maintenance of co-operatives, by increasing the capacity of producers to manage and market their produce.
• Fund projects that help co-ops transition from exporting only raw commodities to exporting finished, marketable products. Let’s work with co-ops to become partners within global supply chains—without middle men. Examples include sugar co-ops building mills and packaging facilities, and fruit producers building facilities to pack, dry, and puree their produce.
• Support healthy private sector partnerships within self-built supply chains to ensure maximum development benefits for producers and communities. Canada’s newly formed Development Finance Institution could play a considerable role here.
• Help build the capacity of women in co-ops through value chain technical assistance. This will help to strengthen women leaders and end gender based biases and violence within producer communities.