This detailed book discusses trends and challenges for fair trade produce since moving from a radical, activist-driven alternative supply chain to its growing penetration of mainstream retail marketing. The UK is now the largest national market, with a 3000% rise in value between 1994-2003. Over 250 products from 100 companies now carry the fair trade logo, as certified via the international Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO). FLO standards cover 13 agricultural products: coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, honey, fresh and dried fruits, rice, fruit juice, wine, cut flowers, nuts and spices. If recent European growth is repeated worldwide, this could expand fair trade sales by a factor of 10-15 in the next few years. It covers historical developments, definitions and principles, economics and financing, operational aspects including certification, with case studies in coffee and bananas, before looking at marketing and consumer ethical demand and an assessment of fair trade's direct and indirect economic and social impacts. 

Sustainable production is one of fair trade's ten key principles and the authors state its intrinsic concern with generating positive social and environmental outcomes. Disappointingly, there is no mention of environmental or health impacts on farmers, workers or rural communities where fair trade programmes operate and only a couple of sentences referring to FLO standards requirements on sustainable production, which vary by product. In general, FLO-certified producer groups are not allowed to use certain pesticides classified as dangerous by the UN or the PAN international network. It would have been useful to have an appendix detailing these as well as information on progress in reducing agrochemical dependency, although many fair trade producer members do farm organically, sometimes using their fair trade premium to fund organic certification too. The sections on threats to fair trade from non-certified, company schemes and "ethical" brands, sector-wide codes of conduct and supermarket own-label makes interesting reading, as does information on how the fair trade movement exerts pressure on conventional supply chain and multinational companies to slowly shift practice. For example, Dole, the primary supplier of bananas to the Co-op supermarket in the UK, was losing £1.2 million per week in sales when the Co-op decided to source all its bananas from fair trade. Overall, this book is an invaluable source for all those who support smallholder development or with an economic interest in the sector's prospects.