Fair Trade

Since 2001, fair trade has been the central focus of the Futur organization. Fair trade, the payment of fair price and the assurance of elevated social and environmental standards in the production of goods, is at the core of all Futur activity.

Futur’s relationship with fair trade began in 1998 when we opened our Compra Solidària shop to create a space for the sale of our handmade crafts and goods as well as those of ten other social organizations. We designated a part of the store to the sale of fair trade food products and launched a Christmas campaign to boost sales. Shortly thereafter, our organization created a board game called Fair Coffee for Intermón Oxfam.

Futur began to participate regularly in trade shows and festivals in 2001 to promote the sale and use of fair trade products. In April of the same year, we opened Cafè Just, a coffee house and bar/restaurant dedicated to the use of primarily fair trade goods. A small section of Cafè Just is set aside for the sale of fair trade food products, a feature now present in each of the Futur bar/restaurants.

May 2001 saw the launch of Futur’s fair trade-based catering operation, which uses fair trade products already available on the market, promotes the import of new products, or creates its own products in-house, like the popular Futur chocolate brownie, our carrot cake or homemade rolled wafers. With our addition of more culinary professionals, like a new on-site chef as well as a pastry chef, Futur’s ability to produce products in-house is growing.

Our current strategic development plan includes the creation of a large central kitchen in the outskirts of Barcelona in which to develop our catering service, our production of desserts and quinta gamma goods (the Italian term for ready-to-use, lightly-processed, perishable products requiring refrigeration). All Futur products will bear the fair trade label, to demonstrate our commitment to fair trade and ecological sustainability.

Futur has been involved in a variety of fair trade activities over the years, including:

• Management of several coffee shops within fair trade festivals like Bioculture and Day of Hope
• Promotion and counsel of fair trade-based catering services throughout Spain, such as the recently opened Madre Tierra catering service of Asociación Semilla in Madrid
• Coordination of fair trade Christmas markets, offering products that are both ecologically and economically sound (though, given the proliferation of this of enterprise sector, Futur discontinued its participation in 2006)
• Membership to the Association of Fair Trade (2005)
• Launch of project Punt Just (2006) which both creates opportunities for traditionally excluded populations to join the workforce and promotes fair trade consumption in the wider market
• Publishing of the book , written by Futur director Manuel Almirall, a work that has inspired a nationwide contest of popular recipes and the subsequent publication of a second fair-trade cookbook
• Recognition of Futur as the first enterprise in Spain that systematically incorporates the use of fair trade products in school kitchens


Note about our support of both local and fair trade markets:

Futur supports not only the international fair trade market, but also locally-produced goods. Fair trade goods generally require cultivation in a tropical climate. The climate of Catalonia or the rest of Spain does not allow for the local cultivation of such products. Futur has decided not to import certain products which are grown and produced locally such as some types of legumes, wines and sparkling wines, to eliminate the environmental cost of their transport and to support the local agricultural system.


To learn more about fair trade click here

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