Fairtrade Fortnight

Today is the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight, and thanks to my chum Jill I was able to gate crash the launch breakfast at Mezzo in Soho, hosted by George Aligaih no less. We learned that Fairly traded products sold in the UK topped £92 million in 2003 (a rise of 37% over the previous year), and now account for over £100m. CafeDirect is one of the stars of this particularly righteous firmanent, and is now Britain's sixth-largest coffee company.

It is great to see the fairtrade fortnight gain some publicity (and I enjoyed my free coffee from the co-op publicity stand at Paddington), but if it is so popular why do I spend so much of my time explaining to friends and relatives what it is?

For those of you still in the dark, here is a quick guide:

Fairtrade ensures:
- A price that covers producer's costs.
- A premium for producers to invest in their communities - clean water, healthcare, education and the environment.
- Long-term and more direct trading relations.

So, to understand fairtrade you have to first understand that most global trade is inherently unfair, which is a huge subject and will be covered in one of my other posts.

What can I do?

Buy products with the fairtrade logo, and convince your employer to do the same.

Is it expensive?

Co-op' own brand fairtrade coffee costs just 1p more than non-fairtrade brands (such as Nescafe and Maxwell House).

Do the producers really benefit?

Taking coffee as an example, Co-operatives that sell to the Fairtrade market receive 106 cents a pound for robusta coffee and 126 cents for aribica. This compares with 32 cents and 65 cents respectively on the world market (December 2003).

Is this just about coffee?

No, there are now many products which can be fairtrade, and the list is growing. Among them are:
Coffee (ground and instant)
Tea (including Earl Grey if you look hard enough)
Honey
Bananas
Chocolate
Fruit Juice
Muesli
Sugar
Wine
Footballs
Roses

Posted: Mon - March 1, 2004 at 10:56 AM