Farmers to have equal say in Fairtrade

Farmers from Africa, Asia and South America had an equal say in running the global Fairtrade movement for the first time, Fairtrade International reports. In a ground-breaking move, producers of tea, coffee, bananas and other goods had half the votes at Fairtrade International’s annual General Assembly in Germany on 12 June 2013 (picture). Delegates to the General Assembly in Bonn voted on Fairtrade International’s accounts, elected a new board and made decisions on new applicants and markets.

Fairtrade is the first major development organization to pioneer such power-sharing between groups in the northern and southern hemisphere, according to the association. Marike de Peña, vice-chair of Fairtrade International and director of the banana co-operative Banelino in the Dominican Republic, said the unique arrangement would help serve the interests of Fairtrade’s more than one million small farmers and their workers.

Previously growers and producers in the southern hemisphere had three out of 22 votes at Fairtrade International’s annual meeting, with the majority held by national Fairtrade organizations in the consumer countries of the wealthy north. Under reforms begun five years ago, the constitution of Fairtrade International, the global co-ordinating body for the movement, was changed in January to give producers groups and consumer countries parity. More information is available at Fairtrade International