Our world keeps evolving: from trading realities, to changing legislation and consumer preferences. Therefore, it is necessary that as Fairtrade we evolve as well. And continue to test and innovate. However, we want to make sure any changes we make to the Fairtrade standards actually make a positive impact on the farmers and workers. That is where Fairtrade pilots come in.

What is a Fairtrade Pilot?

A pilot is a structured way of testing a new idea in a specific environment with the aim of improving how Fairtrade impacts farmers and workers. They usually affect the scope of the Fairtrade Standards and/or the certification process.

We take changes in our standards seriously and both thorough research as well as consultation is required, but it is often preferred to also conduct a trial of the change introduced in practice at a reduced scale, so that risks are easier to mitigate. A Fairtrade Pilot refers to this entire process: from the refinement of the idea to improve the Fairtrade Standards or certification, crosschecking how this new change works in reality, and finally evaluating its outcomes.

In short: Fairtrade can develop and safely try out new ideas related to the Standards that seem promising in terms of growing and improving Fairtrade’s positive impact on producers and their communities.

How do Fairtrade pilots work?

There are several steps to implement a Fairtrade pilot.

• First, a Fairtrade employee can submit a pilot application, which is then reviewed, and consulted on, by the Pilot Facilitator (as defined in the Fairtrade Standards Unit), to draft a pilot proposal.

• The Oversight Committee (composed of representatives of Fairtrade producer networks, Fairtrade traders, national Fairtrade organisations and FLOCERT) reviews the proposal and can green-light the pilot, but they can also require further improvements before taking final decision on the proposal.
• Further fine-tuning and research takes place to define targets and an implementation plan for the pilot. It is ready to go!
• During the pilot phase, progress is continuously monitored to allow risk mitigation, if needed.
• Final evaluation against set targets.
• The results of that evaluation are then presented to the Oversight Committee which will review and endorse recommendations on how to proceed with the pilot.

Depending on how well the pilot performed against set targets, the recommendation may be to:

• include the piloted conditions into the Standards, if the pilot was successful;
• stop the pilot if it was a not a success; or
• pause a pilot and collect more information.

In case of a successful pilot, the pilot is then handed over internally to prepare for permanent implementation of the tested conditions.

For transparency, the detailed procedure is described online in the Pilots Standard Operating Procedure.

What's next?

As the world keeps changing, so will our pilots. Stay tuned to learn more about the pilots established on this page, or visit our Impact Map to learn more about Fairtrade programmes and projects across the world.

In case of questions related to pilots, please write to pilots@fairtrade.net.