Earth’s General Store has been a pioneer for providing Fair Trade Certified products and information to the citizens of Edmonton for almost a quarter of a century. More fresh fruit products are becoming Fair Trade Certified. Over the past few years grapefruits, avocados, pineapples (periodically) , mangoes have joined bananas as being available on a regular basis.

This makes our store and our customers happy to see… and eat 🙂

Our store gets produce supplied from the same sources as other organic stores and services in Edmonton. We make the conscious choice to choose Fair Trade AND organic when we place our orders – not the lowest cost so that the price is more appealing on the shelf/display to the consumer. Nowadays you can just compare oranges to oranges – what other values does the orange offer? Is it Fair Trade, is it organic, is it produced with respect, does it taste good, etc are other values that are important to our store and to our customers.

Meet some of our Fair Trade suppliers:

• Apples – We source Canadian apples when they are available but during spring and summer all stores have apples from the southern Hemisphere (New Zealand, Argentina, Chile). We bring in Fair Trade apples from Interrupcion (Argentina) as part of our apple offering.
• Blueberries – Canada is famous for its blueberries but as with most things they are seasonal and the public expects to have blueberries and strawberries all year long. We pull our blueberries from a variety of sources when not available from Canada or the USA (to support our economy, reduce food miles, and to have fresher produce) but during the off season we get supplied by sources such as Interrupcion (Argentina and Chile).
• Avocadoes – PRAGOR, Mexico
• Grapefruit – PRAGOR, Mexico
• Key limes – PRAGOR (Mexico). Now is the season for key limes. Cute and very tasty.
• Mangoes – Agrovida, Peru; APROMALPI, Peru;
• Pears – Interrupcion (Argentina). If you want pears in winter then stores need to pull these from sources far away. We choose Fair Trade when we available and always organic.

When we support Fair Trade Principles, the workers in the field receive better compensation for the work they are doing. They want the same as you and I – a little more so that they can have the comforts of life, adequate food to provide to their family, schooling for their children, be healthy and happy. We should not deny them this need/want. They deserve the ability to pursue this as much as you and i. They deserve respect for the work they do – just like you and I.

Choose Fair Trade!

See Faritrade Canada for more information about Fairtrade.