New Governance Structure

The Fairtrade Foundation is opening up its membership to allow organisations with related goals to apply to join the Fairtrade Foundation. This follows the adoption of a new governance structure by the Extraordinary General Meeting in May 2003.

"We are opening our doors to new organisations who want to become ‘charity shareholders’. The Fairtrade Foundation is a dynamic, fast-growing organisation which now needs to rise to the next level," says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. "We hope that the injection of new agencies actively backing the Fairtrade Foundation will help broaden our influence and enhance the success of the last ten years."

The first organisations to respond to this opportunity are People & Planet and long time supporter Tearfund, both of which are in the process of applying for formal membership of the Fairtrade Foundation. Other organisations that the Fairtrade Foundation hopes to recruit are being invited to a working breakfast in London on 16 July, hosted by the charity’s patron, George Alagiah.

The Fairtrade Foundation, which was set up in the early 1990s has, up until now, had a tight governance structure of a small group of six non-governmental organisations. Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange, the World Development Movement and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes are all either founding members of the Fairtrade Foundation or became involved with the organisation at an early stage in its development.

The Strategic Review process of 2001 determined that the organisation was at a stage where it could benefit from a wider ownership base. The new structure has been developed with the guidance of leading charity solicitor Lord Andrew Phillips OBE of Bates, Wells and Braithwaite, who made charity law history in 1995 by obtaining charitable status for the Fairtrade Foundation even though the benefits to the recipients were the result of commercial activities rather than purely from charitable donations.

"The Fairtrade Foundation has made a deep impression in its short life, and this change in its shareholding structure responds to that success by building a wider constituency into its constitution," says Lord Phillips.

Organisations with a focus on development or consumers will be invited to become ‘charity shareholders’. The Board will now be composed of four representatives elected by the original NGOs behind the Fairtrade Foundation and up to six representatives for which all member organisations can nominate candidates. The aim is to have on the Board a balance of skills, including commercial skills. In order to maintain the Fairtrade Foundation’s independence, organisations with a direct financial interest will not be eligible to become ‘charity shareholders’.

The Fairtrade Foundation has grown rapidly since founded in 1992. Sales of FAIRTRADE Marked products are projected to double again in the next two years. A MORI poll commissioned recently by the Fairtrade Foundation revealed that 25% of the UK population recognises the FAIRTRADE Mark.

In volume, the most important Fairtrade markets internationally are the UK and Switzerland, together accounting for a sales volume of 33,630 tonnes of Fairtrade labelled products.

Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) was set up by the Fairtrade Foundation and the 16 other such national partners in 1997 as an independent international body to certify and facilitate Fairtrade. FLO now certifies foods sourced from 360 producer groups in 40 countries. For coffee producers alone during 2002, the Fairtrade minimum price and premium worldwide amounted to an additional US$30m income.

For more information, ring 020 7405 5942/7440 7686 – or see www.fairtrade.org.uk .

Notes to Editors

1. Fairtrade is a trading partnership that seeks greater equity in international trade by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised farmers and workers in the developing world. Inspection and audit ensures the producers meet the Fairtrade standards of a democratic and participative structure where Fairtrade premiums are used to improve social conditions or the economic infrastructure.
2. More than 130 retail products now carry the FAIRTRADE Mark, including coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snacks and biscuits, sugar, honey, fruit juice and fresh fruit. Fairtrade products are also offered by more than 25 catering suppliers nation wide.
3. The British public drink 1.7 million cups of Fairtrade tea, coffee and cocoa each day and eat 1.5 million Fairtrade bananas a week. Sales of Fairtrade foods have more than doubled over the past three years and Fairtrade brands now account for 14% of the total UK roast and ground coffee market. In 2002 the retail value of Fairtrade food sales in the UK reached £63 million.
4. The Fairtrade Foundation certifies and promotes Fairtrade. It was set up in the early 1990s by agencies including Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement to respond to the human consequences of collapsing world commodity prices. The first FAIRTRADE Mark product, Green and Black’s Maya Gold Chocolate, appeared on supermarket shelves in 1994; Cafédirect Coffee and Clipper Tea followed soon after.
5. Fairtrade products have won a number of awards for quality. These include: a Q award at the Quality Food & Drink Awards 2002 for Sainsbury’s own-label Fairtrade Tea; Best Organic Coffee for Percol Guatemala Fairtrade Ground Coffee at the Soil Association Organic Food Awards 2002; and in the first Bolivian coffee cupping competition, three of the ten finalists were Fairtrade registered producer groups.

The FAIRTRADE Mark is available on the following retail products:

• AgroFair Fairtrade Bananas, Mangoes and Pineapples
• Brian Wogan Fairtrade Ground Coffee
• Cafédirect 5065, Organic Decaffeinated Freeze Dried and Fresh Ground Coffees
• Cocodirect Drinking Chocolate
• Co-op Own Brand Fair Trade Coffee, Instant Coffee Granules, Chocolate Bars, Bananas, Mangoes and Chocolate Cake
• Clipper Fairtrade Teas
• Cotswold Fairtrade Honeys
• The Day Chocolate Company’s Divine Milk Chocolate, Darkly Divine Plain Chocolate, Divine Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts, Divine White Chocolate and Dubble Milk Chocolate Crispy Crunch Bar
• Equal Exchange Organic Coffees, Teas, Cocoa, Chocolate Brazil Nuts, Honey and Sugar
• Essential Fairtrade Coffees
• Fairtrade Bananas (Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Safeway, Asda, Tesco, Somerfield, Budgens, Morrisons, Waitrose)
• Fruit Passion Orange, Breakfast and Tropical Juice
• Green & Black's Maya Gold and Cocoa
• Hampstead Tea & Coffee Company Teas
• Johnsons Costa Rica Blend Coffee
• Morrisons Own Brand Fairtrade Tea
• Oxfam Organic Cocoa and Fair Trade Chocolates
• Percol Fairtrade Coffees
• Pret A Manger Fairtrade Filter Coffee
• Rombouts Fairtrade Coffees
• Sainsbury's Own Brand Fairtrade Tea, Coffee, Bananas, Chocolate and Drinking Chocolate
• Starbucks Own Brand Fairtrade Coffee and Fairtrade Coffee Beans
• Suma Fairtrade Teas and Coffees
• Teadirect Tea, Organic Earl Grey Tea, Organic Green Tea with Lemon Grass or Cinnamon
• Themis Fairtrade Teas
• Traidcraft Geobars, Teas, Coffees, Organic Chocolate bars, Chocolate Beans, Chocolate Brazil Nuts, Chocolate Ginger, Chocolate Honeycomb, Chocolate Peanuts, Chocolate Raisins, Chocolate Mini Eggs, Sugar and Cookies
• Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade Snack Bars
• Union Coffee Roasters Fairtrade Coffee
• Village Bakery Organic Christmas Pudding, Christmas Cake, Brandy Butter Shortbread, Fireside Cookies

Fairtrade products are also offered by more than 30 catering suppliers nation wide. For more information visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/suppliers_caterers.htm