Fairtrade pilot programmes: purpose, examples and process

Pilots help the Fairtrade system respond to changing markets, environmental conditions and other requirements while evaluating potential benefits for farmers and workers.

1. Why does Fairtrade use pilot programmes?

Changes to a Fairtrade standard can affect producers and supply chains. Fairtrade uses pilot programmes for reasons such as:

• Testing feasibility: Assess whether proposed requirements are practical and affordable, including for small producer organisations.
• Supporting innovation: Test tools such as digital traceability or new financial models.
• Gathering evidence: Collect field data to inform decisions about broader implementation or standard revision.

2. Areas that pilots may explore

Potential areas of experimentation include:

• Standards pilots: Test changes to environmental, climate or social requirements, where approved for the project.
• Certification-process pilots: Test alternative assurance arrangements with the certification body FLOCERT, for example a time-limited approach in conflict-affected regions. The linked FLOCERT announcement concerns the end of that particular pilot, not a continuing general exemption.
• Market and product pilots: Explore new commodity or geographic applications within a defined project scope.

3. Examples of Fairtrade pilots

Examples described by Fairtrade and project partners include:

• Textile supply-chain pilot: A project linking Indian production with the German market allowed specified subcontractors contributing less than 5% of product value to use an alternative indicator of social conditions. Other supply-chain actors remained subject to the full Textile Standard. This is a pilot-specific arrangement, not a general exemption.
• North-North pilot in France: A project exploring certification and labelling for French milk and wheat producers facing income challenges, including combinations with Fairtrade ingredients such as cocoa, sugar or vanilla.
• Digital traceability pilot: The 2020 project with the SaaS platform Farmforce worked with cocoa cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire to improve data ownership and first-mile traceability, including information relevant to deforestation and child-labour risk management. The partner reported expansion in 2022.

4. How a Fairtrade pilot is managed

Fairtrade's July 2025 Pilots SOP v2.0 describes a stage-gate process. The simplified overview below should be read with that procedure:

1. Proposal and review

Define the problem, proposed scope, expected benefits and risks; submit it for review and consultation.

2. Planning and approval

The applicable approval process sets the scope and timeframe. The Oversight Committee makes pilot decisions, with exceptional escalation to the Fairtrade Board; duration is project-specific, not a universal three-to-six-year rule.

3. Implementation, monitoring and appraisal

Implement the approved plan, track outcomes and compare evidence with the project's objectives.

4. Exit decision

At the end, a pilot may

• progress towards wider implementation or a standards-review process, subject to the required decisions; or
• be paused for more evidence, or terminated with an agreed exit plan. Success does not automatically turn a pilot into law or a globally applicable Fairtrade standard.

Fairtrade Pilots SOP v2.0 - July 2025