Fairtrade fortnight

By Douglas Alexander

Fair trade is fundamental to a fair world, a vital route out of poverty for millions of people across the globe. Today (Mon 23) marks the start of Fairtrade Fortnight. It is a reminder that our shopping habits can make a difference, by helping people in the developing world get a fair deal for their products.

Fair trade promotes better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), fair trade enables the poorest, weakest producers to improve their position and have more control over their lives.

Shoppers and businesses across Britain have embraced Fairtrade. Despite the downturn, figures for last year show that the number of households buying Fairtrade foods grew by 1.3 million. More than 70% of UK households are now buying Fairtrade. People are also buying Fairtrade products more often – the average number of shopping trips increased last year as well.

More than 1 in 4 bananas eaten in the UK are now Fairtrade, and more than 1 in 10 cups of coffee and tea drunk are Fairtrade. Over 4,000 products carry the Fairtrade Mark, an independent consumer label which appears on UK products as a guarantee that they have been certified against internationally agreed Fairtrade standards.

But why does this matter? Last year, the rise in food prices pushed as many as 100 million people into extreme poverty. The World Bank estimates that as many as 80 million more people a year, for the next two years, could be forced to live in extreme poverty as a result of the economic downturn.

For these people, having to pay a little more for food means a choice between feeding themselves or feeding their children. They may have no safe water to drink, no schooling and no healthcare. In their world, children die from something as easy to cure as diarrhoea.

Labour has invested almost £12 million in fair and ethical trade initiatives, and we have tripled international aid as a whole since 1997. We are doubling our funding for the expansion of Fairtrade labelling across Europe. By 2010, Labour will have raised the UK’s investment to help poor countries trade to over £400 million a year.

Churches have played an important role in helping to establish Fairtrade in the UK. This year will see more than 5,000 ‘Fairtrade Churches’ promoting Fairtrade in their community through worship, coffee mornings and local events.

As the recent global financial crisis shows, we are now much closer to people around the world than we ever have been. Many of the problems created or made worse by poverty – war and conflict, international crime, the trade in illegal drugs and the spread of diseases like AIDS – affect all of us.

If we do not tackle global poverty, we risk storing up problems for the world’s future. Yet Fairtrade is an example of how we can, through the daily choices we make, help to build a safer, more sustainable and more prosperous world. Fairtrade is today helping to safeguard the futures of over seven million farmers, workers and families in developing countries.

Families across Britain will rightly be taking care over their shopping bills this year. During this Fairtrade Fortnight I would encourage shoppers to also consider the power they have to play a part in changing lives for the better – there has never been a more important time to do so.