Attending the 25 Years Of Fairtrade Celebration Supper on Wednesday night has got me thinking. Twenty five years since I helped develop Green & Black’s Maya Gold, the first product to be licensed by the Fairtrade Foundation. It is hard to believe now the negativity we faced. “No one cares where cocoa comes from” , “People aren’t interested in what farmers earn” and so on. So hats off to Sainsbury’s for being brave enough to list Maya Gold, and well done the other supermarkets for following their lead. Nowadays an increasing number of people want to know where their food comes from and whether the farmers who grew it got a fair deal. At the dinner chef Allegra McEvedy talked about how each ingredient had gone on a journey to be with us; so many more are now interested in that journey. At a time when there is so much negativity in the world it is good to be reminded of the common decency of so many people.
When I worked on launching Maya Gold I never imagined that one day I would be elected to the Board of the Fairtrade Foundation, as happened in January this year. Although I have worked with the Foundation for many years – most recently Chairing its Certification Committee – getting an oversight of the totality of the Foundation’s activities and understanding its challenges has deepened my appreciation of just how special is Fairtrade.
Just check these ratings, all from Kantar and all just in:
Awareness of Fairtrade mark: 90%
Trust in Fairtrade mark: 80%
Care about Fairtrade: 80%
Care about Fairtrade a lot: 31% (highest ever)
Making Fairtrade an Active Choice: 30% (highest ever)
By comparison when I was on the Board of the Soil Association our awareness never got out of single figures
So is the Fairtrade Foundation going to spend its 25th year in an orgy of self-congratulation? Absolutely not (although it was lovely to see again such key Fairtrade figures as Harriet Lamb, Ian Bretman and Sophi Tranchell).
For we still have much to do. Fairtrade has very publicly stated that even the minority of producers who are able to sell an appreciable proportion of their crop under Fairtrade pricing do not necessarily receive a living wage. So moving the focus onto achieving a living wage is a bold step as it runs the risk of demotivating Fairtrade supporters and consumers. The completely inspiring Cote d’Ivoire cocoa farmer Anne Marie explained on Wednesday night why we need to keep pushing: in a very extended metaphor we are apparently only halfway up Kilimanjaro but the view from the top will be wonderful.
One of my neighbours on Wednesday night was Hazel Culley, Senior Sustainability Manager at Marks & Spencer and a long-term supporter of Fairtrade. Hazel has made many trips to visit Fairtrade producers throughout the South and has a good perspective on its strengths and weaknesses. The challenge she raised with me was how Fairtrade can regain the pioneering spirit it exhibited 25 years ago. This subject also came up at Q&A session on Fairtrade organised by the Co-op on Monday at their Angel Square HQ. One question there was whether we can harness the youthful dynamism of the Climate Emergency movement to Fairtrade. Whilst Fairtrade standards specifically address environmental issues such as deforestation and appropriate use of fertilisers, Anne Marie confirmed that climate change is making production more difficult for Fairtrade producers and adding cost. The good news is that Fairtrade producers are better placed to cope with these changes.