Is Fair Trade unfair?

I’ll let the Adam Smith Institute tell it how it is on how unfair Fair Trade may be and what the alternatives are. You can download a pdf of the report Unfair Trade.

“Unfair Trade argues that for all its good intentions, Fairtrade is not fair. Firstly, by guaranteeing certified farmers a minimum price for their goods, it can distort local markets leaving other farmers even worse off. Secondly, only about 10 percent of the premium paid by consumers actually makes it to the producer, which makes it an inefficient way of helping the poor. Most importantly, Fairtrade does little to aid economic development, focusing instead on sustaining farmers in their current state.”