Tokenism in the attempt to empower Fair Trade (USA) small-scale fishers in Toli-Toli, Indonesia

Abstract Fair Trade was created to tackle problems with marginalization and exploitation of small producers in food production. By joining the certification, small producers are organized into a Fair Trade Producer Association, which serves as a space for encouraging empowerment. This paper analyses how this is enforced and implemented in the Fair Trade (USA) Capture Fisheries Standards (CFS) through the Fisher Association (FA) in Toli-Toli, Indonesia. It reveals various types of fishers’ participation, such as meetings, vote counts and fishing documentation. The study finds that while Toli-Toli Fair Trade fishers participate in a number of ways, they lack regulatory and management roles beyond the production site. Their participation is more akin to tokenism, where they are taught to produce tuna according to Fair Trade standards. Ultimately, Fair Trade small-scale fishers continue to be another means of production and small-producer empowerment, in its true sense, remains unclear.