Not every product made by a Fair Trade co-ops sells well. Marketing, many times, is an especially contentious part for small-scale producers who have extensive knowledge of traditional crafts, pottery and tools but don't necessarily know how to capture a Western market for them.

So in those cases... why not offer consumers an option to purchase products blindly? First, consumers can name a price for which they're willing to pay for a product they may not necessarily need or want. Second, at random, a product is selected from a pool of products that haven't been selling well. Products stay in the pool longer based upon how much has been produced and how much they're underselling.

This isn't to create a false market for something - a.) it's to remunerate the producers for their effort, no matter how "marketable" their product is and b.) it's to give the less popular products a chance and c.) it's to help preserve the cultures of the people who produce the items.

Maybe the products put into the pool would be paid for with a slight discount to encourage the producers to stick to what will sell and scale back (but not necessarily discountinue) the production of their traditional items. A slight discount would also encourage the consumer to participate in the "blind ordering" program, not to mention, much like Fair Trade in the first place, it would be done out of solidarity.

What's everyone think?