Fair Trade

What Is FAIRTRADE?

Fairtrade goods are not the cheapest, but when you buy them you are assured that:

producers receive a fair price to cover costs and provide a living
funds go towards social and economic development
there is short term trade finance for producers
the contracts allow long-term planning
working conditions, and production and environmental standards are improved

Fairtrade works with individual producers, producer co-operatives and with local plantations and factories to benefit producers, workers and their communities.

There are now over 350 certified FAIRTRADE products available in the UK in the following categories:

Coffee & Tea	Bananas	Honey
Cereals & Nuts	Citrus	Rice
Cocoa & Chocolate	Other Fruit	Snacks
Preserves & Spreads	Fruit Juice	Roses
Sugar	Wine	Footballs

By giving third world producers access to our markets on advantageous terms, Fairtrade helps them to help themselves. The more we buy, the more we help. UK sales are now around £100 million per year.

How Can We Support FAIRTRADE?

Buy Fairtrade products at every opportunity. Look for the FAIRTRADE Mark:

at Traidcraft stalls in St. Helen’s and St. Thomas More and at some WCT events
in shops in the village, including Down to Earth and the Brewhouse Gallery
at local Fairtrade retailers such as Fair Deal World Shop, 605 Hitchin Rd, Luton, and shops in High St, Methodist Church, Harpenden and United Reform Church, Homewood Rd, St Albans
in our local supermarkets (including ASDA, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Somerfield, Spar, Tesco and Waitrose)
in shops (including Holland & Barrett, Oxfam and Woolworth)
in coffee shops (including Costa Coffee, Marks & Spencer, Pret a Manger and Starbucks)
on-line from traidcraftshop.co.uk, Fair Trade online (store.yahoo.com/fairtradeonline-uk/), ethicalshopper.co.uk and greenol.co.uk

If you can’t find Fairtrade products where you want to buy them, let the shop management know by asking, by letter or via supermarkets’ customer comment boxes. The best way of keeping them in the shops is to buy them.

All around the UK towns and church groups are committing to Fairtrade status, promoting access to and use of Fairtrade goods.

Who’s Behind FAIRTRADE?

Fairtrade labelling began in the Netherlands in the late 1980s. There are now 19 national organisations in consumer countries around the world managing and monitoring the Fairtrade label. They operate under the guidance of an international standard setting and monitoring body, Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO).

The UK face of Fairtrade is The Fairtrade Foundation. It was established in 1992 as a registered charity. Its shareholders include CAFOD, Christian Aid, the Methodist Relief and Development Fund, the URC, Traidcraft, the World Development Movement, Oxfam and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.

Fairtrade certified products come from 422 certified producer groups (including many co-operatives of small producers) in 49 producer countries, as at September 2004. Around 5 million people (farmers or workers and their families) benefit.

More details are on the websites of the Fairtrade Foundation ( www.fairtrade.org.uk ) and the FLO (www.fairtrade.net ).

Critics of Fairtrade argue that it does not address the real problem of unfair international trade rules; helps delay inevitable changes in the structure of farming; and mostly eases middle class consumer consciences. Until world trade rules change, however, it is an effective way for us to assist poor third world producers right now.

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Based upon document produced by the Justice & Peace Group in Wheathampstead (February 2005)