Networks & Alliances

The World Fair Trade Organization is a global community focused on social enterprises that prioritise the welfare of their workers. It is a guarantee system, which attempts to create a new market for products that maintain Fair Trade practices through its Ten Principles of Fair Trade. This ensures that members of WFTO prioritise people, planet and product quality over the profits made. Being a guarantee system, it is based on the participation of these members to form trust, a social network and knowledge exchange. The principles entail opportunities for disadvantaged producers, fair and equitable payment, no child or forced labour, non-discrimination, gender equity, good working conditions, capacity building, promoting fair trade, respect for the environment, and accountability and transparency.

As mass-marketing and consumption grow, workers of the primary and secondary sectors not only lose value but face insecurity, and the alliance between Last Forest and the WFTO means to rid them of that financial insecurity. Producers are paid upfront for their contributions. This secures their income no matter the success of the product, and a mutual loyalty grows between the company and the producers. As a Fair Trade Organisation, Last Forest also deepens its bond with producers and consumers, so that even where the value of the marginal worker diminishes in the mass market, it remains or increases here. Last Forest is also able to widen the customer base for any product sold.

A Fair Trade Organisation is a locally focused guarantee system, and products sold carry a guarantee label. In a market where transparency and clarity are rare, customers can trust that products are sourced and made ethically, and genuinely hold the value they claim. With this alliance Last Forest is also able to spread awareness among customers, sharing the process and tradition behind a product.

In 2016 Last Forest Enterprises became a WFTO member, and was certified as a Fair Trade Organisation. Last Forest serves as a market platform for many groups from across India, giving small producers wider market access. While Keystone Foundation, a non-profit, works on the market side, Last Forest takes a slightly different approach: it shows everyone in the value chain, from producers to consumers, that it is a profit-driven company with a difference. That difference is an atmosphere whose primary concern is ethics, value and development, where producers are shareholders. This structure lets producers make decisions that benefit the whole community rather than an individual.