How fair is fair trade?

Has anyone ever asked the question on how fair is the Fair Trade?

People often confuse Fair Trade with Organic food. Some of the materials like cotton could come under organic as well as Fair Trade. Coffee for instance comes under Fair Trade, whether it is produced organically or not is another question.

Prices:
If we look at the prices of Fair Trade goods or for that matter Organic products, they are often sold at a premium. Does it actually cost that much, is a big question. Again people believe that by buying these goods they are actually helping the farmers of the third world country. One can argue that it is a noble cause, but why is it that the customer only has to pay the price. Has any company actually given any subsidy for discounting the prices on these fair trade goods? Will it not help the consumers as well as farmers both at the same time?

For example, normal Banana sold in Supermarket at 0.84p, whereas the fair trade and organic banana is sold at £1.14, i.e. a premium of 0.30 pence. Why only the customer should pay the premium.
Now if we consider that the profit would be just 0.10 pence for 1,000,000 bananas sold by supermarkets, than the total money earned by supermarkets would be £100,000. What happened to the rest of the money is unclear.

Accounting:
The balance sheet of every company shows the combined figures for the entire organisation, which makes it very difficult to find the actual cost carried on Fair Trade and Organic products. Companies and several other supermarkets do not show these costs separately.

Carbon Trading:
Carbon trading refers to the carbon emitted in the atmosphere via transportation or manufacturing. The aim of Fair Trade was to benefit the farmers in the poor countries, who are not able to produce enough due to unavailability of land or proper equipment to cultivate the land or money needed for both. Transporting of Fair Trade goods from one country to another will only increase the carbon emissions which is not conducive to the environment.

Large scale manufacturing a viewpoint:
We are forgetting the very basic reason as to why we started producing in bulk. The main reason was to reduce cost and optimum utilisation of resources. Now has Fair Trade answered these questions is unclear. Although the supporters of Fair Trade do say that they are helping the environment by doing organic farming. They also say that they are helping poor farmers by proving them necessary equipment and training as well as money needed to buy the seeds for cultivation.

Economics of Fair Trade
As per economics, raw materials often cost cheaper than the finished products. The developed countries buy raw materials from under developed countries and sell the finished products back to the poor countries thereby making sizable gains from the underdeveloped countries lack of manufacturing.

Conclusion:
To conclude, it is important to ask the question as to who is making profit from Fair Trade movement. Is it just another trick to make customers pay a premium in the name of poverty of third world and underdeveloped countries? How do we justify the carbon emitted due to the transportation of goods from third world countries affecting the environment? Again what about the local producers who have manufactured in bulk? What happen to those goods?
Although supporters of Fair Trade say it is a good movement, but I find it as just another way of making more money and making customers pay a premium in the name of helping farmers of poor countries. Fair trade simply ignores local farmers thereby creating further unemployment. Fair trade could be useful if the country is not able to produce certain goods which could be manufactured in the poor countries making it a worthwhile movement.
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Dear Readers,
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Cheers,