Abstract
In order to create a niche market, a quantitatively significant group of consumer in developed countries must be willing to purchase Fair Trade agricultural products instead of mainstream products. Consumers' role in international trade is to create demand for a given product, as without it a market dynamic cannot exist. As consumers act upon their personal interest (usually referred as consumer preference), they have to prefer Fair trade products relative to others to purchase them. In mainstream economic theories, consumer preference is always the result of a trade-off between price and quality, the only two characteristics of regular products. However, Fair Trade model has imposed a new and additional characteristic for its product, and has thus modified the regular price/quality market dynamic. Certified Fair Trade products are always more expensive than regular ones, though the difference differs among the commodities' categories. However, apart from the logo on the package, Fair Trade products are not distinct from any other products.
