Let's make Fairtrade the norm

On 3 July 2013, the Fairtrade Foundation annual commercial conference was held in London. Around 130 delegates attended the conference, drawn mainly from representatives of fair trade companies, brands and major retailers. Entitled Survival of the Fairest: Staying Ahead in a Changing World, Fairtrade gave businesses a preview of campaigns and projects that the Fairtrade Foundation are planning to launch in the coming months.  

In autumn, the Fairtrade Foundation will launch a global Power of You campaign focussing on coffee. The aim of the campaign is to take people on a "bean-to-cup journey" showing them the difference their purchase can make to farmers, workers and their communities in developing countries. The commercial campaign will be activated on digital channels such as Facebook and YouTube. Fairtrade will further roll-out its interactive online question and answer project, Ask Malawi.tv. Co-funded by Comic Relief, the project gives people in the UK an insight into the daily lives of Malawian Fairtrade tea and sugar farmers. Farmers use mobile video cameras to answer questions and tell their own stories.

On occasion of the conference, IGD Chief Executive Joanne Denney-Finch said it was time to make Fairtrade the normal way of doing business: "Fairtrade is a movement whose time has truly come. It began on the fringes, but has been growing in terms of sales and support for many years." Research revealed that more than a third (35%) of shoppers say they have specifically chosen to buy Fairtrade in recent weeks (compared with 9% who said this in 2006), 37% would buy more Fairtrade if they knew where the money is spent or the difference it makes to developing nations, and 18% would buy more if they knew more about how standards are monitored. More information is available here: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/