As the fairtrade fortnight is drawing to a close, let's remind us all of what the fairtrade certification you see on selected products really means. From humble beginning in 1988, the fairtrade product certification has grown into a massive international movement, offering consumers in wealthy countries an increasing array of products to choose from. Fairtrade coffee alone is now offered in the UK by a total of 69 brands, who combined provide consumers with a choice of nearly 400 different fairtrade coffees. Overall, the UK fairtrade association, which manages the certification in the UK, has certified more than 3,000 products. The Fairtrade certification was developed to protect small producers and farmers from fluctuating world prices which sometimes fall below their production costs to devastating effects, and help them out of poverty. By buying products that carry the fairtrade mark, shoppers are assured that small disadvantaged producers and workers in developing countries are getting a better deal. They are paid for their products a pre-agreed fair and stable price at or above world market price, which not only covers their costs of production and a small benefit, but also includes a premium for investment in social and economic development projects such a healthcare services, schools etc. Other benefits include longer-term trading relationships and receiving pre-financing where requested. The Fairtrade association claims that more than 7.5 million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 59 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system. The certification however has its detractors. Some charities such as WorldWrite do not support it and in 2008, a report by the Adam Smith Institute condemned it as "a marketing device that does the poor little good", and at worse a scheme that may hurt the poor by sustaining otherwise unsustainable activities and preventing them from moving to more modern practice or industrialising. Having travelled to developing countries quite extensively in my past career I have watched countless smaller producers operating dangerously close to or at the poverty line in the best conditions. For them, industrialisation often means poor and outrooted lives in large cities or becoming a low paid worker on larger plantations. I don't find it unreasonable to want to help them edge their risk with a more stable price and I happily pay a few pence more for my fairtrade bananas. After all, isn't it what the European Common Agricultural Policy has been doing for years for our own farmers without giving us consumers any choice? And you, what do you think? Do you buy fairtrade? Do you think fairtrade is fair? Write your comments here!