TransFair USA enables sustainable development and community empowerment by cultivating a more equitable global trade model that benefits farmers, workers, consumers, industry and the earth. We achieve our mission by certifying and promoting Fair Trade products.

The Fair Trade Certified™ label is the only independent, third-party consumer guarantee that companies have complied with strict economic, social and environmental criteria for particular products, thereby creating a more equitable and sustainable trade system for producers.

The principal criteria of Fair Trade certification are:
1) Direct trade with farmer organizations, bypassing unnecessary middlemen
2) Fair prices for farmers, and decent working and living conditions for workers
3) Free association of workers and farmers, with structures for democratic decision-making
4) Access to pre-financing, and additional premiums for community and business development
5) Sustainable agricultural and farm management practices, including restricted use of agrochemicals and no GMOs

When consumers see a product with the Fair Trade Certified label, they are guaranteed that farmers received a fair price and all of the other benefits of the Fair Trade system.  To date, sales of Fair Trade Certified products have supplied nearly $80 million in above-market revenue to millions of farmers, workers and their families in over 50 developing countries worldwide.

Fair Trade Certified coffee is now the fastest-growing segment of the US specialty coffee market. TransFair USA opened its doors in late 1998 and began certifying Fair Trade coffee in 1999.

In the following six years, TransFair 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. And Fair Trade in the US is no longer just about coffee: TransFair has also introduced Fair Trade Certified tea, cocoa, fresh fruit, and, most recently, rice and sugar to the US market.

More of each dollar spent on any of these products goes back to the farmers and farm workers who produce them. The US Fair Trade market has thus 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.

We seek to empower and enrich the lives of family farmers and workers around the world. Ours is a market-based approach to ending poverty, an alternative to dependency on aid. We believe farmers should get a fair price for their harvest, and workers deserve safe working conditions, a decent living wage and the right to organize. Through direct, equitable trade, farming and working families are able to eat better, keep their kids in school, improve health and housing, and invest in the future. Strong families, vibrant local economies, support for the natural environment, sustainable community development, and hope for the future - these are the results we seek through Fair Trade. We envision millions of American consumers, increasingly concerned about the state of the world, looking for opportunities to use their power in the marketplace to make a positive difference. Through their shopping decisions, people have the ability to vote with their dollars for a better world. We seek to educate, inspire and mobilize this force for change. We believe the rise of the Conscious Consumer is causing a fundamental shift in the way companies do business, creating an historic opportunity to reward companies that embrace sustainability. For us, Fair Trade is not just a market; it is also a social movement that brings strength, hope and real choice to the world's consumers. Companies should not have to choose between social responsibility and the bottom line. We envision Fair Trade as a new global business model that helps industry secure its own profitability and competitiveness while protecting the environment and ensuring a fair return to farmers and workers. We help industry forge long-term partnerships that strengthen global supply chains, obtain stellar product quality and support the development of disadvantaged producer communities. In our effort to reach consumers throughout the nation, we choose to collaborate with companies of all types and sizes, from mission-driven organizations and family-owned businesses to transnational corporations. By raising the bar and helping create new best practices in global trade and production, we aspire to remain the Gold Standard label for social and environmental sustainability. Protecting the environment goes hand-in-hand with protecting the livelihoods of local communities. The Fair Trade model forges a direct link between social and environmental sustainability. We require rigorous protection of local ecosystems and ensure that farmers receive a harvest price that allows them to practice sustainable agriculture. We encourage farmers to transition to organic agriculture because it is safer for farm workers, healthier for consumers and better for the environment. Ultimately, we help farming families become the best stewards of the land and defenders of the planet's future. We envision a day when Fair Trade products are readily available in mainstream stores across the country, when US consumers can opt for a "Fair Trade Lifestyle" and shop responsibly in every product category. This vision requires an inclusive approach to new products and stakeholders. Eventually, we seek to extend the Fair Trade model to industrial as well as agricultural products, and to goods produced in the global North as well. In the end, we aim to channel more of the opportunities and benefits of globalization to all the underprivileged farming and working families who today are being left behind. Fair Trade helps make "free trade" work for the poor.

TransFair is its people and the values by which we live.
Empowerment: We believe in empowerment and freedom of choice as means to a better world.
Integrity: We strive to do the right thing and value relationships built on honesty, mutual respect and trust.
Sustainability: We engage in sustainable solutions to global problems that affect the earth and its people.
Innovation: We transform the world through entrepreneurial creativity and leading by example.
Excellence: We believe that quality of life, work and performance is critical to achieving our mission.
Personal Development: Strong organizations rely on strong individuals. We encourage and support each other in realizing our fullest potential, thereby strengthening our internal community.
Community: We value our global and internal communities' diversity of perspectives, each holding a piece of the solution. We collaborate and partner for mutual success.
Fairness: We work to create opportunities and extend the benefits of globalization to all people, everywhere.
Impact: We build positive solutions that achieve meaningful social and environmental change in the world.

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