Understanding usage of denen

Question

Konzept des fairen Handels ist es, Handelsprozesse vornehmlich zwischen Entwicklungs und Industrieländern so zu gestalten, dass den Erzeugern ein Mindestpreis für ihre Produkte gezahlt wird, der über denen des herkömmlichen Handels liegt.

I am trying to understand the usage of denen in the above. When I look up denen usage on google, I find that it's supposed to be relative pronoun for dative plural eg. But, as far as I understand normally the relative pronoun comes right after the comma, or after a preposition which comes after the comma. What happend here?

Answer 1

Let's simplify. I introduce the adverb darüber for that purpose:

Ein Preis, der darüber liegt.

As you can see, that der is a relative pronoun referring to ein Preis. No further relative pronouns needed. Let's expand that darüber a bit. The adverb becomes a full adverbial:

Ein Preis, der über den üblichen Preisen liegt.

Here the dative is introduced by the preposition über. That argument die üblichen Preise ist what we expand next. Let's introduce a reference as a genitive attribute:

Ein Preis, der über den üblichen Preisen des Marktes liegt.

And finally, we can reduce den üblichen Preisen to the pronoun der in dative plural, as that may be guessed from context with that genitive attribute:

Ein Preis, der über denen des Marktes liegt.

And it's the same in your example. That denen refers to context. It's a method for creating standalone genitive attributes, so you don't have to repeat yourself too often.

Let's translate that into English:

A price that is above those of the market.

It's obvious now, isn't it?

Answer 2

While "denen" can indeed also be a relative pronoun, it is not in this case. It is a demonstrative pronoun: "... which lies above those/the ones of the conventional market". The words I wrote in bold are the part that "denen" translates to; it is really the same construct as in this translation.