Japanese corporations have begun to sell fair trade-certified products in a belated effort to catch up with an international movement that has existed for nearly two decades.

Fair trade is a system in which buyers do business directly with producers in developing countries and pay equitable prices for goods to enable the producers to maintain sustainable livelihood, instead of seeking products at the lowest possible price.

The coffee bean trade is a popular example.

In some places, the price of coffee beans has plunged below production cost, but if certified as fair-trade products, they are guaranteed a minimum price of 30 percent above the going rate.

And if producers grow coffee beans organically, which limits environmental destruction, even higher prices are guaranteed.

The pricing system contradicts with the economic principle of buy low, sell high, but a growing number of consumers in industrialized countries are willing to pay the difference.

About 25 percent of the bananas Switzerland imports and about 20 percent of the coffee beans imported by Britain are said to be fair trade-certified products.

At Starbucks Coffee Japan Ltd. outlets, customers have been able to find a fair trade-certified coffee from Latin America since 2002.

It is the recommended coffee on the menu at Starbucks shops the 20th of every month.

"Having customers drink the coffee is the biggest contribution we can make," a Starbucks official said.

According to Wataru & Co., a Tokyo-based coffee trader, the company's imports of fair-trade coffee beans, which stood at one container load in 2001, had increased 10-fold by 2004.

Though imports of the beans still account for less than 0.05 percent of imported coffee nationwide, their sales in Japan have been increasing thanks to their good flavor, according to a Wataru official.

Seijo Ishii Co., a foreign food specialty shop, has begun selling fair-trade mocha imported by Kyoto-based Ogawa Coffee Co.

But fair trade is not just for coffee.

Aeon Co., operator of the Jusco supermarket chain, began selling 2,000 T-shirts made from organic cotton grown in India.

Although the garments are a bit costly at 2,900 yen each, Kozo Suzuki, a sales manager at Aeon, is confident they will sell well to "customers wishing to make an international contribution through shopping."

The T-shirts are on sale at 20 of Aeon's outlets nationwide.

An official at Fair Trade Co., which imported the T-shirts for Aeon, said, "About 120 women with hearing difficulties or living in poverty were involved in making the T-shirts."

The women earned a monthly income of about $50, about twice the average income of a farming household, and acquired a skill that will enable them to support themselves, the official said.