| 1946 | Edna Ruth Byler imports needlecrafts from low-income women in Puerto Rico, and displaced in Europe, laying the groundwork for Ten Thousand Villages, North America’s first fair trade organization. |
| 1948 | Church of the Brethren establishes SERRV, North America’s second fair trade organization, to import wooden clocks from German refugees of WWII. |
| 1968 | United Nations Conference on Aid and Development (UNCTAD) embraces “Trade not Aid” concept, bringing fair trade into development policy. |
| 1969 | Oxfam and other European humanitarian organizations open the first World Shop in the Netherlands to sell crafts, build awareness and campaign for trade reform. |
| 1972 | Ten Thousand Villages opens their store, the first fair trade retail outlet in North America. |
| 1986 | Equal Exchange is established as the first fair trade cooperative in North America, importing coffee from Nicaragua as a way to make a political statement with a high-quality, household item. |
| 1988 | Farmers and activists launch the first fair trade certification system, Max Havelaar, in the Netherlands to offer third-party recognition and a label for fair trade products. |
| 1989 | International Fair Trade Association (IFTA), now WFTO, is established by fair trade pioneers as the first global fair trade network. |
| 1994 | Fair Trade Federation is formed as the first network of fair trade organizations in North America. |
| 1997 | Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO) is formed. |
| 1999 | TransFair USA begins certifying fair trade coffee using the TransFair USA label. |
| 2002 | FLO launches the international “FairTrade” certification mark. |
| 2002 | First World Fair Trade Day celebrated. |
| 2004 | Producers form national and regional fair trade associations across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. |
| 2006 | The Institute for Marketecology (IMO) begins their “Fair for Life” certification program. |
| 2007 | Fair trade retail sales top $1 billion in the U.S. and $2.5 billion worldwide. |
| 2009 | Worldwide, fair trade retail sales top $4.7 billion. |
| 2010 | Organic Consumers Association (OCA) launches Fair World Project, the first fair trade consumer organization, to promote and protect the integrity of the fair trade movement. |
| 2013 | WFTO launches their “WFTO Guaranteed” system, providing a peer-review based alternative certification. |
| 2015 | The first farmer-led fair trade certification begins appearing on packaging. The Small Producers Symbol (SPP) is built by small-scale farmers and is only available to dedicated fair trade companies. |
