International trade affects the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people every day. When commodity prices fall it can have a catastrophic effect on millions of small-scale producers, forcing many of them into crippling debt and causing them to lose their land and their homes.
God’s word has a lot to say about the need for justice in trade, the need to pay workers fairly and not exploit them to make money. All over our world these biblical values are being ignored – as many people who make the food and clothes we buy are not paid a fair living wage or treated with dignity and respect.
Victor, 18.
Victor (
left) is 18 and lives in Mim, in Central Ghana. He is the son of a cocoa farmer who is a member of Kuapa Kokoo – a cooperative in Ghana which sells as much of its cocoa as possible to the fair trade market.
Victor says, ‘This fair trade way of trading helps us farmers to earn our way out of poverty and allows us to plan for a better future. We need fair prices so that we can invest in the things we really need – like tools, clean water wells and education. I am hoping that soon my father will be able to send me to train as a mechanic thanks to the extra money earnt from fair trade.’
Tearfund supports fair trade, because fair trade works by paying small scale producers like Victor’s dad a secure, guaranteed price for their crops and gives them the security of knowing that they can plan for their future.
Is fair trade working?
39 per cent of the British public are nwo aware of the Fairtrade Mark, according to a MORI poll, up from 25 per cent last year. In 2003, consumers bought a staggering 2,083 tonnes of Fairtrade coffee from shops and supermarkets. Coffee shops sold 385 tonnes of Fairtrade coffee during the same period - that's almost 70 per cent more than the previous year!
Over the past three years consumption of Fairtrade foods in the UK has more than doubled. At the beginning of 2004 shoppers were sepdning more than £2 million per week at the checkout on products with the Fairtrade Mark.Retail sales are running at an incredible £100 million a year, which means that more than 4.5 million poor producers and their families in developing countries are seeing change for the better.
Nearly all major supermarkets, and many independent sotres, now include fair trade in their range.
Which fair trade food is available?
There are now more than 250 products available from 112 companies, with shoppers able to enjoy pineapples, mangoes and a wide variety of confectionary including Fairtrade chocolate cake and cookies for the first time. Fairtrade products include many different foods such as cocoa, chocolate, coffee, tea, sugar, bananas, apples, pears, plums, satsumas, clementines and lemons.
What does the Fairtrade Mark stand for?
Any product which has the Fairtrade Mark on it must meet the following strict conditions of production and trade:
Production:
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Small-scale farmers can participate in a democratic organisation
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Plantation factory workers can participate in trade union activities and have decent wages, housing and health and safety standards
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No child or forced labour
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Programmes for environmental sustainability
Trading:
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A price that covers the cost of production
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A social ‘premium’ to be used by the producers to improve their living and working conditions
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Advance payment to avoid smaller producer organisations falling into debt
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Contracts that allow long-term planning
Look out for the Fairtrade Mark on coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snack bars, honey, sugar, fruit juice, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, wine and rice in your supermarket – all major supermarkets stock Fairtrade and, if you can’t find Fairtrade, ask the manager why not!
Can trade be good?
As businesses go global, we can feel even further removed from the people who make things for us. Yet trade isn’t all bad. People need jobs, countries need trade, and people may choose jobs with multinationals over local agriculture because they get better wages. The problem is when trade excludes the interests of workers, power is abused and profits are concentrated on the few. Yet even business consultants reckon social responsibility is the next big thing in business. So if our fave brands are making stuff and abusing poorer people in the process, we can make a fuss. Chances are, they’ll listen. After all, they are super-sensitive to wealthy consumers (like us) who can easily shop elsewhere.