Contract Production (CP)

The term “contract production” has a different meaning in WFTO vs Fairtrade. It is therefore important to distinguish the meaning in relation to its context.

In Fairtrade, Contract Production is a production set-up (regulated by Fairtrade Standards) which involves small-scale producers who don’t have a formal structure, or who are organised into structures without legal status. They can join Fairtrade if they partner with an intermediary organisation, such as an exporter, processor, private enterprise or non-governmental organisation (NGO) (see Promoting Body) to which they contract for the production and sale of a product. The intermediary organisation contributes to the producer’s social and economic development with the aim of helping them become autonomous and, over time, comply with the Fairtrade Generic Standards for Small-scale Producer Organisations.

In contrast to the above, WFTO uses the term Contract Production to refer to a production set-up where producers have an agreement with a buyer, sometimes before harvesting and most often before starting cultivation. Defined conditions might concern prepayments, delivery inputs by the buyer, cultivation methods, delivery period and price. The (small-scale) producers either don’t have a formal structure or are organised into structures without legal status.