Who enables sustainable Fair Trade? The current status and challenges of Fair Trade in Korea

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jfairtrade.1.2.0024
• Pages: 24-31
• Published date: 01 October 2019
• Date: 01 October 2019
• Author: Seonyoung Hwang,Sunhwa Kim,Jihyun Jeong,Seungkwon Jang
• Subject Matter: Fair Trade,social economy,value chain,sustainability,Korea

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Who enables sustainable Fair Trade? The current status

and challenges of Fair Trade in Korea

Seonyoung Hwang, Sunhwa Kim, Jihyun Jeong and Seungkwon Jang

Seonyoung Hwang is General Manager of the Korea Fair Trade Organization (KFTO) and a Master’s

student at the Department of Management of Co-operatives, Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, Korea. She

has participated in research projects funded by the Seoul Metropolitan Government for two years. Her

main research topic is institutional logics of organisations.

Sunhwa Kim has been a board member of the Korea Fair Trade Town Steering Committee (KFTTSC)

since 2017 and is writing a doctoral thesis at the Department of Management of Co-operatives,

Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, Korea. She has been carrying out research on Fair Trade funded by the

Seoul Metropolitan Government and Gyeonggi Assembly since 2015. Her primary research interest is the

dynamics of change and institution in Fair Trade and consumer co-operatives.

Jihyun Jeong is a Master’s student at the Department of Management of Co-operatives, Sungkonghoe

University, Seoul, Korea. She has participated in the Fair Trade research project funded by the Seoul

Metropolitan Government and is currently carrying out research on the Fair Trade practices of Korean

consumer co-operatives from a value chain approach.

Seungkwon Jang is Professor of the Department of Management of Co-operatives, Sungkonghoe

University, Seoul, Korea. He has been teaching organisation theory and co-operative management while

doing research on Fair Trade with postgraduate students.

Abstract

This study aims to explore the status of Fair Trade in Korea and suggest directions Korean Fair

Trade might take for its sustainable development and practices. Initiated in the early 2000s, Fair

Trade in Korea has been growing ever since. It has seen the emergence of various participants

in Fair Trade value chains. The diversity of participants in the value chain has led to a variety of

practices. It can be meaningful for researchers and actors to explore who implements Fair Trade

in Korea in what ways and to discuss how Fair Trade can be developed sustainably. The authors

examine the characteristics of the participants and their activities through a value chain analysis

of Korean Fair Trade, and discuss ways forward for sustainable Fair Trade.

Keywords: Fair Trade; social economy; value chain; sustainability; Korea

Introduction

Fair Trade in Korea was initiated in the early 2000s when a social economy organisation called Beautiful Store1

started to import Fair Trade handicrafts. Many Fair Trade Organisations (FTOs) and consumer co-operatives in

the social economy sector have subsequently participated in Fair Trade, and its market and movement have

been growing since then. In 2011, the Fairtrade International Marketing Office (now Fairtrade Korea) was

1 Beautiful Store, a non-prot foundation with charity shops, launched ‘Beautiful Coee’ as a spin-o for Fair Trade businesses in 2014 (http://www.

beautifulstore.org/way; accessed 29th May 2019).