Changing the way we shop for coffee or tea, flowers or bananas, wine or spices, cosmetics or clothes means major improvements in the lives and livelihoods of farmers and workers in poorer countries.
Harriet Lamb, Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation
Small farmers all over the world, but particularly in the majority world, are forced to sell their crops to middlemen or to big corporations at prices that are kept, by the buyers, as low as possible. Often there is little or no competition among buyers, or the farmers have poor or no knowledge of the global prices for their goods, so they cannot negotiate effectively.
Many Northern countries have movements to make these transactions fairer, to pay farmers prices that reflect the labour and efforts to improve quality they have put into growing and harvesting their crops. In many countries, it is the Fairtrade movement that does this.
This movement has shown the power that each and every one of us has to create change. In 2010, nine out of ten people in the UK bought a Fairtrade product, and globally some 7 million farmers, workers and their families are benefiting. It is a movement that is steadily gathering force.
People in the rich world are shocked when they hear that many growers still scrape by on less than $2 a day, or have to choose between putting a meal on the table at night or sending their kids to school in the morning. Faced with these facts, the public have shown their willingness to challenge such injustice. They have sent a message to companies that they want them to play fair by the farmers and workers who grow their food. Fairtrade puts producers right at the heart of trade. As one banana farmer said: “I used to just be someone who loaded boxes of bananas. In this new system, I am an international businessman.”
