First - the confession: My name's Joanna and I'm a Twitter addict. If you're doing it right, it often feels like you're sitting quietly in a pub (or Fairtrade coffee shop!) listening to the conversations of the most erudite, witty and interesting people in the country. Anyway, I read a Tweet the other day which really set me thinking. This Tweet, from Indica (941 Twitter followers), a fair trade shop in Glasgow (although not yet a BAFTS member) reads:
Buying #fairtrade at a supermarket is kind of missing the point - support an #indieretail outlet & buy #organic and #fairtrade together.
A lot of interesting ideas are packed into these 140 characters. Firstly, supermarkets do sell more Fairtrade goods than any other type of retailer. Farmers in the developing world are receiving £53 million a year from the Fairtrade premium and there's a strong argument that without the likes of Sainsbury's (170,155 followers), the Co-op, Cadbury's, Nestle and Starbucks the farmers who produce Fairtrade certifed crops such as bananas, coffee and cocoa beans, sugar cane and tea leaves would still be stuck in absolute poverty. Fair trade pioneers such as Cafedirect and Divine (15,692 followers)do an amazing job but we need to face the fact that most people in the UK do most of their shopping in supermarkets, and the only way Fairtrade is able to make the huge difference it does, is by giving customers the opportunity to buy FLO marked goods in supermarkets.
There is a massive recognition of the FLO mark - 78% of the UK population recognise it, and this is largely down to its presence within mainstream retail alongside the efforts of the Fairtrade Foundation (66,278 followers) and Fairtrade groups across the country. Not to mention the inspiration for the headline of this article, Charlatans singer Tim Burgess (62,276 Twitter followers) whose Tim Peaks coffee is one of the newest Fairtrade brands on the market.
However, if you scrutinise the label on a FLO marked biscuit or cake, you will probably find it was made in Europe, often in the UK. The 78% of customers who recognise and seek out goods with the FLO mark don't always realise that the item they have in their hand does not actually originate in the developing world. The raw ingredients were grown by farmers whose lives are being changed by Fairtrade, and that's fantastic, but how can fair trade help change the life of someone who isn't a farmer?
A recent survey conducted on behalf of the Fairtrade Foundation found that:
• More than a third (35%) of shoppers say they have specifically chosen to buy Fairtrade in recent weeks (compared with 9% who said this in 2006)
• 37% would buy more Fairtrade if they knew where the money is spent or the difference it makes to developing nations
• 18% would buy more if they knew more about how standards are monitored.
This tells us that customers are interested in knowing more about where and how their shopping was produced, and why what they buy matters to the people who made it.
Shopping for fair trade crafts, clothing and giftware like the products you find in fair trade shops gives you the chance to own something which was entirely created by artisans in the developing world. When you hold a fairly traded necklace, bowl or keyring in your hand, you know that this object was crafted in the hands of a talented worker in the developing world. BAFTS and WFTO members who import from the developing world help nurture and develop traditional skills in modern ways, helping their producer groups to build their businesses, training new staff and reacting to customers' needs. Many fair trade importers work with people with disadvantages within their own societies - women, people with disabilities, victims of trafficking etc.
As a market trader I speak to people at all points on the fair trade recognition scale - from avowed converts to skeptics to those who have never even heard of it. I have found that whatever their understanding of fair trade, my customers love to hear the stories behind the products I sell. Supermarkets can't do this. Independent retailers are a vital cog in the wheel of fair trade, because they can tell the producers' stories. From the hands of the worker to the hands of the shopper, each fair trade product tells a different story, but all the stories have one thing in common: lives are changed by fair trade. What we buy matters, and shops and suppliers can work together to get that message across.
Joanna Pollard (86 followers)
BAFTS Chair
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