What about fair trade in a high prices' context?

International audienceCocoa price on the international market was high for a decade when, in 2016, fair trade impact studies have been done in three countries (Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Nicaragua). These studies allow analysing fair trade impact when “price effect” is quasi-inexistent. We show that fair trade still has an important role to play in this context, by allowing producers’ organizations improving cocoa plantations’ sustainability and profitability. But we also bring to light the challenge of social inclusion and the risk of inequalities’ reinforcement in a context of fair trade scaling up, as well as the threats to producers’ organizations that appear in this high prices context, due to a stronger competition with private middlemen and producers’ organizations with other sustainable standards, and within fair trade organisations themselves. Finally, we conclude on the importance of the producers’ organizations, which are confirmed as a fundamental element of fair trade, beyond guaranteed minimum price and premium