Activity Description: TransFair USA's mission is to build a more equitable and sustainable model of international trade that benefits producers, consumers, industry and the earth. They achieve that mission by certifying and promoting Fair Trade products.

TransFair audits transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.

In the past six years, TransFair has leveraged limited resources to certify 74.2 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee. This has provided coffee farmers in some of the poorest communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia with over $60 million more than they would have earned selling their harvests to local intermediaries. This means that each dollar of TransFair USA's budgets has been translated into more than $7 in supplemental income for farmers and farm workers since 1999. They have also introduced Fair Trade Certified tea, cocoa, fresh fruit, and, most recently, rice and sugar to the US market.

The US Fair Trade market has empowered farmers and farm workers around the world to determine their most pressing local economic development needs for themselves, and reinvest in their products, cooperatives, and communities in appropriate and sustainable ways.

Summary of Certification Standards:

1. Guaranteed floor price paid directly to the producer group, or income paid to the worker organization.
2. Fair labor conditions for farm workers.
3. Freedom of association for farmers and workers, and democratic decision-making processes.
4. Environmental standards that restrict use of agrochemicals and foster sustainability.
5. Removal of unnecessary middlemen that decrease producer income.
6. Access to pre-harvest lines of credit for cooperatives.