22 February – 7 March 2021
I consider myself to be quite a thoughtful and considerate person. However, this Fairtrade Fortnight has really got me thinking about my shopping habits, Fairtrade products and my wider impact on the world.
Fairtrade has been around a long time now, since 1992. That’s nearly 30 years of making a difference to people’s lives and livelihood through campaigns and spreading awareness throughout the western world, of the harsh realities of working life for people and communities at the start of our chocolate/coffee/clothes’ (etc) life, and trying to better these.
So Fairtrade should be huge by now right? Well, in some respects, it is. There are now over 4,500 licensed and certified Fairtrade products for sale in the UK (as noted on the Fairtrade website at 24/2/21).
This said, when I peruse the shop shelves, I can not help but wonder where these thousands of products are.
A quick google of various UK supermarkets leads to confusing messages. Tescos state they have started their own Fairtrade range:
and Morrisons say they fully support Fairtrade Fortnight and are even offering 25% off promotional offers on their Fairtrade products:
These are commendable behaviours from large retailers. However, searching via many UK supermarkets online shopping systems, my expectations for choice of Fairtrade products are not nearly met. In fact one result showed just 6 Fairtrade items available.
So is Fairtrade in the mainstream or not? Is the lack of Fairtrade choice a reflection of the current times where many UK citizens have lost their jobs or been furloughed or otherwise struggling at the moment? Or transportation issues due to covid?
Fairtrade is relatively more expensive, but necessarily so in order to ensure a ‘fair trade’ is done at the start of the products life, thereby ensuring that farmers and workers growing and harvesting crops are given a ‘fair’ deal for the work they do so that they can ensure decent living and working conditions for themselves and their community.
This should be something that matters to all of us and I would urge those in a position to purchase said items to do so. However, that said there are other things we can all do to help the plight of farmers and workers from countries closer to the equator. You see, it is not only the trade price and working conditions that affect these farmers and workers, but also climate change is having a huge impact on their crops these days. Farmers are seeing an increase in floods, droughts, violent storms and diseased plants. The resolution to this is something we can all be part of. Cutting down on plastics, reusing and recycling, growing organically are all things we can take on board and have a positive impact on.
The onus and the opportunity is ours, to choose the world we want.
If you’d like to learn more please visit https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/
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