Foundation Scoops Top Humanitarian Prize

One of the world’s top humanitarian prizes has been won by the Fairtrade Foundation and the international umbrella organisation it helped found.

The prestigious King Baudouin International Prize for Development, worth £100,000, will be presented to the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) and its members in Brussels on May 27 in recognition for their pioneering role in giving disadvantaged producers and workers in the developing world an opportunity to participate directly in international trade at Fairtrade conditions.

This award follows a phenomenal rise in Fairtrade sales in the UK, up by 90 per cent in the past two years with 1.5 million Fairtrade bananas consumed every week and 1.7 million cups of tea, coffee and cocoa drunk every day. According to the latest MORI survey commissioned to mark World Fair Trade Day on May 17, a third of Britons now associate the FAIRTRADE Mark with ‘Guarantees a better deal for Third World producers’.

Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation Harriet Lamb said: "We’re delighted that Fairtrade is receiving this recognition for its unique contribution to tackling poverty. The King Baudouin Prize is one of the world’s leading international development awards. People do look for the reassurance that the producers in developing countries get a better deal – and the FAIRTRADE Mark gives them that".

Half of the prize money will be used to stage a meeting for 150 representatives of producer and trader groups in London this September to discuss future FLO policies and how to increase the market.

FLO was set up by the Fairtrade Foundation and the 16 other National Initiatives in 1997 to ensure there was an independent international body to certify and faciliate Fairtrade. FLO now certifies foods sourced from 360 producer groups in 40 countries.

FLO International’s president, Paola Ghillani said: "It is an honour. We have been working for many years in setting up and strengthening our system of certification and support in favour of disadvantaged producers and workers, and by now we have proven that a different way of trade is possible, viable and beneficial for everybody, producers, workers and consumers included."

The King Baudouin prize is awarded every two years in recognition of individuals or organisations that are making a significant contribution to the advancement of developing countries. Past Laureates include Brazil’s Landless Peasants Movement and the Grameen Bank from Bangladesh.

For more information, contact The Fairtrade Foundation Press Office on 020 7405 5942 or mobile 07770 957 451 – or see www.fairtrade.org.uk. Alternatively contact Matt Morrell, representative of the King Baudouin prize on 00 32 474 85 02 35.

Notes to Editors

• World Fair Trade Day is organised by IFAT (International Federation for Alternative Trade). For a list of events that are taking place around the world, visit www.ifat.org/dwr/forthcoming
• 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. 
• 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. 
• 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.
• 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.
• 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