The Fair Trade Sustainability Alliance (FairTSA) is a non-profit organization specializing in fair trade and social responsibility standard development, ethical supply chain management and accountable, sustainable community development. They are the only Fair Trade standard holder with an "open" certification system, meaning that every certifier who is interested in working with FairTSA standard can do so, provided that they comply with FairTSA basic requirements.
FairTSA's Fair Trade Standards cover agricultural products and processing, cosmetics, and handicrafts. From its inception, the FairTSA standards have been designed to comply with the requirements of the International Standardization Organization (ISO). Existing standards such as those of the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO), the Social Accountability Standard SA 8000, the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), other private standards as well as the ISEAL standard development recommendations have been taken into consideration for the development of the standards.
FairTSA supports the accountable use of fair trade Social Premium funds. With every purchase by a consumer, social premium funds are generated and flow back to the producer communities for use in community development. For each major community development project, FairTSA's accountability program involves a logical process of: community project proposal, approval and funds release, written and photographic/video progress reports, and semi-annual and end-of-project on-site audits.
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