Can certification increase trade fairness and worker empowerment? Lessons from Fairtrade International-certified plantations in Ecuador

Abstract

This article analyzes the strategic potential and empirical challenges of private governance in promoting decent work in global agriculture by curtailing buyer power and fostering labor agency, drawing lessons from Fairtrade International-certified flower plantations in Ecuador. The study explains (1) Fairtrade’s logic in promoting ‘trade fairness’ and ‘worker empowerment’ and operationalization of these values via its certification standards, (2) the power relations shaping certification practices in global flower markets and Ecuadorian plantations, and (3) the grounded implications of participation for firms and workers. Important lessons emerge. First, while Fairtrade pursues a promising avenue for challenging the buyer control that erodes supplier and worker power, it has only marginally reduced floral buyer power due to retailer resistance, low-bar certification competition, and programmatic regulatory gaps. Second, although Fairtrade’s empowerment approach has strengthened labor agency within and beyond the workplace, bolstering individual empowerment has proved easier than fostering associational power. As I show, certification practices and outcomes are mediated by commodity-specific global market politics and localized enterprise, labor force, and legal contestations which explain why program aspirations are often not realized. Standard systems can reshape internal trade relations and organizations but cannot alone ensure global trade equity or robust labor representation.