Understanding the Registered Company Listing
Product certification not company certification
Only products can be Fair Trade Certified, not companies. When a company appears on the list of registered companies, it means one or more of its products meet Fair Trade certification standards and is both monitored and audited by TransFair Canada, or a related organization in another country.
Also note that when a company is registered for a product (e.g. coffee) it doesn’t necessarily mean all of that company’s products (e.g. all coffee blends) are Fair Trade certified. To know for sure, look for a Fair Trade certification mark on the package.
Company name versus brand name
Our list of registered companies only provides the names of the companies themselves, which is not necessarily the same as the brand name(s) under which they sell their products.
Private labels
When one company contracts another company to produce a product under its own brand name, the arrangement is called a “private label”. Technically, any company listed as a “licensee” could produce a private label product for another company, even though the name of the company selling the final product doesn’t appear on this list.
Retail sales
Fair Trade certification monitors a product supply chain from the producer/farmer to the point where a Fair Trade certification mark is applied to a consumer-ready product. This means companies that sell Fair Trade certified products at retail (grocery stores, cafes, etc) are unlikely to appear on this list, unless they are producing their own Fair Trade Certified products.
If you ever have any questions or concerns about the Fair Trade status of a product, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Understanding the Terms
Registered: A company registered to trade in Fair Trade certified goods, but not to produce consumer-ready products bearing a Fair Trade certification mark (e.g. importers, manufacturers, etc.)
Licensee: A company registered to trade in Fair Trade certified goods, and to produce consumer-ready products bearing a Fair Trade certification mark.
Sub-Licensee: A company that produces a consumer-ready product bearing a Fair Trade certification mark, but has deferred some reporting responsibilities to the licensee(s) who sell them Fair Trade Certified ingredients.
Labeller: A company that takes a consumer-ready Fair Trade certified product produced by another company, and packages it in its own packaging bearing a Fair Trade certification mark.
3rd Party Licensee: A company that is monitored and audited by another member of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) International, but has signed an agreement with TransFair Canada to use the (bilingual, black & white) Canadian certification mark.
Cross Border: A company that is both monitored and audited by another member of FLO and sells Fair Trade Certified products in Canada using a non-Canadian Fair Trade certification mark (i.e. not the bilingual, black & white mark).