Thursday 26 June 2014

Fair trade: Out of the margins and into the mainstream?

House of Lords panel discussion on Trade out of Poverty
On Wednesday 25 June I joined representatives of retail and trade justice organisations in the Members’ Dining Room of the Houses of Parliament for afternoon tea. We had been invited by the Fairtrade Foundation and the Ethical Trading Initiative to  a panel discussion chaired by Baroness Young of Hornsey.
I’d never been inside the Houses of Parliament before and as a self-confessed political geek I found it exhilarating to be inside Pugin’s iconic building. Despite the presence of tourists and invited guests milling around, there is an eerie hush as you move through corridors lined with leather benches and stained glass windows. The Members’ Dining Room has a magnificent view over the river Thames and its plush surroundings provided a rather jarring counterpoint to our discussion about the difficulties faced by workers in the developing world.
Baroness Young opened the debate by talking about the Rana Plaza disaster and the recent reports of slavery in the Thai prawn fishing industry, to indicate that workers’ rights are at the forefront of many consumers’ minds. 
The Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs, Jenny Willott described the statistics produced by the department showing 83% of consumers think it is important for retailers to have an ethical policy and 40% of consumers would change their buying behaviour in response to a company’s ethics. She said she was shocked that many of the retailers whose clothes were made by factories in the Rana Plaza complex were not even aware that this was part of their supply chain, and forcing companies to examine and be accountable for their supply chain was the best way to ensure such a disaster did not happen again. Ms Willott argued that transparency was the best way to harness the power of both consumers and shareholders to choose to take their business and investment elsewhere. 
Giles Bolton, Tesco’s Head of Ethical Trading Policy said that trade was the most sustainable way out of poverty and that millions of Chinese had been raised out of poverty due to multinational companies moving production there. He talked about the recent reports of slavery in the Thai prawn industry and stated that Tesco had learned an important lesson about reducing supply chains in order to ensure traceability. Baroness Young added that it sometimes felt like journalists were the only people willing to trace supply chains and wondered why it was so hard for companies to do the same work as journalists.
Chief Adam Tampuri, Chair of Fairtrade Africa, and a cashew nut farmer from Ghana concentrated on the ways in which Fairtrade benefits farmers and their communities. He explained how empowered his community feels when given the opportunity to decide how the Fairtrade premium is spent, and that they really value feedback from all stages of the supply chain so they can build better businesses. He stressed the importance of investment not just in farmers but in moving all aspects of the production process to the developing world so that more and better jobs are created and so that farmers’ children are no longer reliant on one industry, giving them more choices.   
In short, then: transparency; no forced labour; capacity building - three of the Ten Principles of Fair Trade which underpin everything BAFTS hopes to achieve.
Working in fair trade for almost ten years now I have heard these arguments many times before but I came away from this meeting pleased that trade justice issues were being raised in such a high profile place and with so many mainstream retailers present. As well as Tesco I noticed representatives from Waitrose, M&S, New Look and H&M as well as committed Fairtrade brands like Divine chocolate and many more. Maybe it’s time for ethical trade to move out of the margins and into the mainstream
Joanna Pollard

BAFTS Chair

Wednesday 19 February 2014

GUEST BLOG FROM "FAIR AND FUNKY": "GO BANANAS"

The mission statement at fairandfunky is ‘empowering people to take little steps to change the world.’ We believe that each and every one of us have the power to make a positive difference; through the way we act, what we wear, where we shop and what we do.
  
We run workshops in schools and community groups on key global themes: Fairtrade, recycling and the environment. We organise events and we sell a range of ethical products online. All of which encourage participants to think about their sense of place in the world and the positive steps they can take locally, nationally and globally; to make a difference.

Fairtrade is at the core of what we do. And this Fairtrade Fortnight, like 1000’s of other Fairtrade campaigners and supporters we are planning to ‘Go Bananas!’ for Fairtrade.
Fairtrade is one of the ways that can, and does, change the world. The Fairtrade Mark (by which individual products are approved in accordance with internationally agreed criteria from the Fairtrade Foundation) is the only independent labelling system which is co-owned and co-directed by the farmers. Fairtrade guarantees a fair deal for producers. Its primary purpose is to increase and improve producer impact, and currently reaches 1.3 million farmers and workers. However, Fairtrade currently touches only 1% of trade globally. Half of the world’s hungry are farmers. This is not good enough. It really is time to wake up and smell the coffee. To get angry. To get animated. To take action. To Go BANANAS!
   
During Fairtrade Fortnight our workshops will focus on Fairtrade, and supporting the “Stick with Foncho” campaign from The Fairtrade Foundation, will focus on bananas.

We plan to make a Fairtrade banana orchard throughout the fortnight at a number of events – from a workshop in the Houses of Parliament with MP’s to a workshop at Holmfirth Market with a local pre-school. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you do. We ALL have the power to take little steps to change the world.

Buying Fairtrade bananas will do just that. They change the world. They change lives. They transform communities. The fairandfunky workshops in Parliament have been organised with our local MP Jason McCartney (see picture of Helen and Sophie with him, left) : “I’m delighted that fairandfunky will get the opportunity to run their workshops in the Houses of Parliament,” said Jason McCartney MP, “this is a fantastic platform to educate people about the importance of Fairtrade.” And we hope that a visit from Foncho and The Fairtrade Foundation at the event will make people stand up, and take action.

We’re not stopping at Parliament. We’re also running Fairtrade workshops in schools throughout the Fortnight, taking part in International Women’s Day celebrations, running public Go Bananas! workshops, hosting a banana producer in Holmfirth, and finishing with the “fairandfunky FAIRTRADE family fun day” finale!

We’re also going bananas in our online shop! Take a look at our very special Go Bananas! offer and use code GOBANANAS for free postage.
  
So, how will you Go Bananas! for Fairtrade? Let us know via facebook or twitter. We hope we have empowered you to take your own little step, because it is together that we will change the world.

Wednesday 12 February 2014

BAFTS' Membership & Marketing Coordinator's thoughts on her first Spring Fair

The beginning of last week saw Kathryn, BAFTS’ Marketing and Membership Coordinator, head off to Spring Fair at the NEC Birmingham with Board member and Manager of Gateway World Shop, Hazel Dobson, to spend two full days briefly meeting most of the other Board members, then catching up with as many BAFTS’ suppliers as possible. It was also an opportunity for Hazel to place orders in situ, and for Kathryn to visit several potential new members.

The exhibition space was as vast as people had indicated: so many halls packed with row upon row of white stands, which took on a disorientating similarity after several hours. We worked out the best approach hall-wise and went round, speaking to members, taking photographs, asking how things were going, and I was amazed at the sheer diversity of products on offer. I was equally impressed by the huge amount of passion which our suppliers put into their businesses. It was the first time I had met many of them in the 11 months since I joined BAFTS; some I had already had a chance to speak to at Harrogate in July, but one day had not been enough time to see everyone then.


One question which cropped up with one or two potential new members was the issue of some of their products coming from China. One of these suppliers had previously applied for membership of BAFTS several years ago, not quite fulfilled the criteria, and believed this aspect had probably had something to do with it. Certainly, this whole topic is one which requires further investigation, if fair trading practises are ever to take a serious hold there. Whilst China used to be linked with cheap labour, it has become an economic super-power over the last few years, and knows that the world is watching its progress. 


A second topic which saddened me a little was the feeling by some seemingly very committed fair trade businesses who do not wish to join BAFTS, that “fair trade” is being watered down too much into “ethical trade” and moving away from one of its grassroots aims of seeking out marginalised, disadvantaged and impoverished producers; an environment to which they do not want to belong. It was necessary to hear that sentiment, in order to understand where some fair trade businesses are coming from, but working out how to bridge that gap will take some serious thought.