Public consultation open from 16 July to 15 August

Living income has long been at the heart of Fairtrade's mission. Across our work with farmers, companies and partners, we know that supporting farming households to improve their incomes is essential to creating resilient supply chains, reducing poverty and delivering lasting impact.

Today, many companies are looking for credible ways to accelerate progress in this area. To support this ambition, Fairtrade International is developing an Add-on Standard for Advancing Farmer Livelihoods. This is an important next step that provides a harmonised framework for companies seeking to strengthen their commitments, rather than solely offering separate programmatic efforts.

We are now inviting stakeholders across the Fairtrade system and beyond to help shape this new standard through a public consultation.

Why an Add-on Standard?

The proposed Add-on Standard is designed to provide a consistent approach for companies that want to go further in supporting farmers’ livelihoods and incomes within their supply chains. It’s based on our work over the past decade through our living income strategy, and partnerships with companies that are already paying Living Income Reference Prices and investing in other aspects important to sustainable livelihoods, such as productivity, income diversification, child rights, and opportunities for women, to name a few. 

With new regulations like the Empowering Consumer Directive in Europe, it’s more important than ever that companies can back up their sustainability claims with clear, third-party-audited standards and measurable results that they can communicate. 

By establishing a standardised process, the Add-on Standard aims to:

• provide a credible framework for implementing income commitments
• strengthen consistency across initiatives designed to support increased incomes for farmers
• support meaningful collaboration between supply chain partners, and
• help drive greater impact for farmers through robust and transparent practices.

As with all Fairtrade Standards, stakeholder engagement is essential to ensure that the final standard is practical, effective and relevant for those who will use it.

We want to hear from you

The consultation is open from 16 July until 15 August. Click here to participate.

We encourage feedback directly or via a Fairtrade member organisation from all interested stakeholders, including:

• Small-scale producer organisations
• Traders
• Licensees
• Brands
• Any other interested organisations or individuals

What are we consulting on?

We are seeking feedback on the proposed Add-on Standard. This will include the understanding of the concept behind the standard and its differentiation from other standards, as well as the practicality and ease of implementation of requirements, the integration and overlap with current actions and projects that have been successfully in place, and of course compliance.

What are the global programmes referred to in this document?

The new Fairtrade International strategy (2026-2028) launches three new global programmes on coffee, cocoa and bananas. They cover the themes you will see in the consultation document: climate resilience, thriving smallholder producer organisations and reducing human rights risks. They are global frameworks that provide a holistic approach towards advancing incomes. These programmes would be supported by this standards document, enabling partners to potentially make on-pack claims (subject to consultation).

Is this consultation my input into the programmes?

This consultation looks at the standards that would support the programmes, not the programmes themselves. The programmes will go live later this year, and we will be hosting individual market consultations in early September for your input into the design of the programmes. We will share information in advance for that discussion, which will be collecting your feedback and understanding your interest in the programmes themselves, in contrast to the current standards consultation process.

A separate process from the Fairtrade Standards Evolution project 

We recognise that many stakeholders are currently engaging with the consultation on Fairtrade's Evolved Standards, which is open until 31 August. To avoid any confusion, it is important to note that the Add-on Standard consultation is not part of the Standards Evoution project.

The Add-on Standard follows its own dedicated standards development process, focused specifically on strengthening Fairtrade's approach to incomes going beyond basic Fairtrade certification, and will be open until 15 August.

What happens after the consultation?

Once the consultation closes on 15 August, Fairtrade will carefully review and analyse all stakeholder feedback.

The insights gathered during the consultation will inform revisions to the proposed Add-on Standard before it is submitted to the Fairtrade Standards Committee for review and approval, tentatively on 24 September. Following approval, the new standard will be published and made available for implementation during October.

Strengthening farmers’ incomes requires collaboration across the entire supply chain. By sharing your expertise and experience, you can help ensure that the proposed Add-on Standard for Advancing Farmer Livelihoods is practical, credible and capable of supporting meaningful change for farmers and businesses alike.

We look forward to receiving your feedback and working together to improve farmers’ incomes through a strong and trusted Fairtrade standard.