Monday 24th February to Sunday 8th March

It’s over a quarter of a century since the FAIRTRADE Mark launched in the UK and last October they celebrated 25 years of Fairtrade products in the UK.

In 1992 the Fairtrade Foundation was established by a group of charities including Oxfam, The Women's Institute, CAFOD, Christian Aid and Traidcraft, who formed the Fairtrade Foundation to tackle the crisis in the collapse in world coffee prices which was having a devastating impact on smallholder coffee farmers around the globe – they were earning less than the cost of growing their coffee. Two years later the first few FAIRTRADE Mark certified products in the UK were launched by Cafédirect, Clipper tea, Green & Black’s and Percol Coffee. By 2016 there were over 1.66 million farmers and workers in 1,411 producer organisations across 73 countries in the Fairtrade system. Celebrating the 25th anniversary the Fairtrade Foundation thanked the public for fighting for the rights of vulnerable people who are exploited by trade. Thanks to the demands of consumers today there are around 5,000 Fairtrade-certified products on sale in the UK.

The growth of the market over 25 years has made Fairtrade the most visible ethical label in the UK, recognised by 9 out of 10 people and trusted by 84% of consumers.

During that time, Fairtrade and their supporters have been fighting against poverty and inequality, making a real difference to the lives of farmers and workers, by demanding fairer trade and living incomes for farmers and workers.

Fairtrade in Action

Many of the people behind our food still live in extreme poverty and behind the sweet delight of chocolate lies the bitter taste of exploitation. The UK chocolate industry is worth at least £4 billion each year. And yet the average cocoa farmer in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where 60 percent of all cocoa is grown, makes less than 75p a day. This is well below the extreme poverty line of around £1.40 per day. If this wasn’t enough to cope with, the climate crisis is already wreaking havoc on global food production. Farmers are battling less predictable seasons, more plant diseases and weather extremes, leading to a lack of food. They are suffering, struggling to harvest crops and working longer hours, for lower prices.

For women, the situation is even more unfair. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, women carry out more than two thirds of the labour involved in cocoa farming. They work in the fields, look after children, carry water, and help bring the crop to market. And yet they often have fewer rights than men, and often earn less than a quarter of the money generated. That’s why the ‘She Deserves a Living Income’ campaign was launched last year.

Rosine Bekoin is a mother of five, cocoa farmer and member of CAYAT co-operative in Côte d’Ivoire. Rosine is slightly unusual as cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire go – because she owns and runs her 2.5-hectare farm, which was passed to her from her mother. Normally it is men who own farms and earn the income from them. Rosine first sold her cocoa as Fairtrade in 2016. Having received training in quality and good agricultural practices from CAYAT, her production increased by 50 percent in 2018.

Ways to support Fairtrade

The international Fairtrade movement was a reaction to the crises facing coffee farmers when the price they received for their crops collapsed. Despite the success of the global Fairtrade market, the problems facing farmers and workers around the world continue, which is why the organisation is campaigning for living incomes to become a reality for all farmers and workers. There are several ways to help:

For more details and resources please see their website: www.fairtrade.org.uk