At German grocery operations over the past couple of months, if you pay attention to 'labels'.....there's a new label out there called 'FairTrade' (green, black and blue).
The meaning? You are paying slightly extra for this product, which is produced outside of the EU and Germany.....usually a third-world country....and there is a foundation which is monitoring a company, which has to pay its workers a 'fair wage'. I put 'fair wage' in quotes because it's often misused and abused.
Are Germans willing to pay extra....to be more 'fair'? I brought this up to my German wife, who said in a blunt way....no. Her stance? A working-class doesn't make the money to go and pay extra for this. Where you typically find this label? Well....items which are NOT in season. So who does pay? Probably the more wealthy non-working-class..
An example. Germans typically buy German, French, or Italian grapes in the period....June through August. For the rest of the year? They might find quantities from Peru, Chile, Egypt, India or Ecuador. So there might some cooperative in Peru that pays a higher (more fair) wage, and this gets tacked on and the German distributor pays two to four percent more on the product.
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