G8 Leaders Challenged To Make Poverty History Through Fairtrade

Farmers in Africa could be making poverty history for themselves if the terms of world trade were not so stacked against them. And some farmers’ organisations are already doing so by supplying the international Fairtrade market. The success of the Fairtrade model demonstrates that intervention and regulation in the market can work to reduce poverty and promote development. This is the message from the Fairtrade Foundation Director Harriet Lamb to the leaders of the G8 as they meet in Gleneagles 6-8 July 2005.

“If we are to reverse the catastrophic trends on poverty and reach the Millennium Development Goals, a whole new global economics needs to take centre stage, focusing on increased aid flows and further debt cancellation but also, and most critically, a more just global trade regime which puts at its core and has as a declared aim, not liberalisation but sustainable development,” says Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, the UK member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). “The success of the Fairtrade model challenges the neo-liberal paradigm of free trade which has unequivocally failed the poorest communities in Africa.”

Fairtrade is based upon a clear set of rules to ensure trade creates the basis for sustainable development. This includes affirmative action in favour of marginalised small farmers and workers of the developing world; democratic organisation of the producers; investing in supply chain management and supporting producer organizations where necessary; setting minimum prices and broader trading rules such as the provision of prefinancing or long-term relations; paying a small premium to improve social conditions and the economic infrastructure; and giving top priority to community and environmental considerations.

“The leaders of the G8 summit would do well to take note of the success of Fairtrade as an economic model that works. It is commercially successful not despite the priorities and regulations which create a bias in favour of development goals, but rather precisely because of them,” says Harriet Lamb. “The G8 leaders should take that focus on how trade can be made to benefit the poorest through to the WTO Doha Development Round negotiations in Hong Kong this December”.

Harriet Lamb is in Edinburgh for the rally on 2 July, and to speak at a ‘Fair Trade Gathering’ of world music and speakers at the Usher Hall on the evening of 1 July, organised by the Scottish-based magazine New Consumer. She will also participate in a two-day meeting ‘Raising Living Standards in Africa: A Role for the G8’, on 6 to 7 July, organised by the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa and the GMF . Raymond Kimaro, General Manager of KNCU (Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union) in Tanzania, will also speak at the Usher Hall and attend the second meeting. KNCU coffee cooperative supplies 20 percent of its coffee to the Fairtrade market.

Raymond Kimaro says: “By strengthening their organisation and marketing skills, by improving health, water and education facilities, by diversifying into new economic activity, and by improving environmental protection programmes, farmers and farm workers in Africa who supply the Fairtrade market are already working towards making poverty history for themselves. Being able to make a living from the sweat of one’s labour should be a basic human right, safeguarded by governments, for all people in Africa and elsewhere.”

Harriet Lamb will also tell audiences that the staggering success of consumer interest in Fairtrade in the UK and across Europe demonstrates that Fairtrade is a win-win model that is as popular with consumers as it is with producers. There are now over 900 retail and catering products in the UK alone and a MORI poll conducted in May 2005 showed that one in two adults in the UK recognize the FAIRTRADE Mark.

In the UK, sales of products with the FAIRTRADE Mark, which reached £140m in 2004 , are doubling every two years and awareness is now reaching younger and more diverse audiences. The poll also shows that the majority of those buying Fairtrade are recent converts. The figure for overall international sales of Fairtrade products in 2004 is expected to exceed €800m.

“The public across the G7 countries seem to have an insatiable appetite for Fairtrade,” says Harriet Lamb. "The Fairtrade Foundation and other organizations in FLO are rushing to keep up with the demand for a greater volume and range of products. Ordinary people, in this way, are showing that they do care about trade, it is important to them and they want trade justice. They buy Fairtrade products as a practical demonstration of their demand for trade justice. The governments of the G8 countries should follow their lead and put trade justice at the heart of trade”.

For further information or to arrange an interview with Harriet Lamb from the Fairtrade Foundation or Raymond Kimaro from the KNCU coffee cooperative in Tanzania, please phone mobile 07770 957451 or email martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk or media@fairtrade.org.uk

Notes to Editors
Africa is the fastest growing region within the Fairtrade network with approximately 124 producers organisations currently certified to Fairtrade standards. The range of products African producers are bringing to UK markets includes tea, coffee, wine, cocoa, honey, nuts and fruits. Much of the work in expanding this work has been made possible with grants from the UK Department for International Development and Comic Relief. (see policy document Fairtrade Supporting Farmers to Make Poverty History for a full list of 20 African countries and other supplementary information).

• Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) has members, and therefore markets for Fairtrade products, in 20 countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA.
• UK shoppers can now choose from more than 900 products from more than 150 companies, including coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snacks and biscuits, sugar, honey, fruit juice and fresh fruit.
• The highest recognition of the FAIRTRADE Mark in the UK is now among the 25-34 age group. More than half of Fairtrade buyers (53%) first bought a Fairtrade product in the past year, including 7% who first bought a Fairtrade product in the past three months (equivalent to 3% of all adults in the UK, according to MORI).
• Globally, Fairtrade is now benefiting nearly 5 million people - farmers, workers and their families – in 58 developing countries.
• The Fairtrade Foundation is a member of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign which brings together a wide cross section of over 500 organisations - charities, campaigns, trade unions, faith groups and celebrities - set up to press the government for global change on trade, aid and debt. The members are united by a common belief that this year offers an unprecedented opportunity for the UK to press for that global change.
• The UK Government’s Commission for Africa Report itself noted ‘Increased funding from developed countries would help increase the participation of producer groups in ‘fairtrade.’ The demand for products carrying the ‘fairtrade’ mark is growing but investment is needed in building the capacity of producer groups in Africa to meet the rigorous demands of developed country markets.’ The Fairtrade Foundation and its sister organisations across Europe have submitted a funding proposal to the G8.
• Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 2002: “On my recent visit to Africa I spoke of the need to build a new partnership between developing countries and the developed world. Fairtrade provides an inspiring example of such partnership. On my visit, I had the privilege of visiting cocoa farmers in Ghana, and saw for myself how Fairtrade in cocoa is increasing incomes and empowering local producers operating in global markets.”

Fairtrade and the G8
As well as participating in the two meetings mentioned above

• Delegates attending the G8 Summit will be served Fairtrade tea and coffee supplied by Cafédirect, now the UK’s sixth largest coffee company, and they will be able to sweeten their drinks with Fairtrade brown and white sugar, supplied by Nirvana Sugars. In addition to tea, coffee and sugar, all the hotel rooms at Gleneagles will add an extra surprise for chocolate-loving guests by treating delegates to Divine chocolate bars, supplied by the Day Chocolate Company which is one-third owned by Ghanian cocoa growers.
• The Fairtrade Foundation will have a stall in the Media Centre where Fairtrade products available in the G7 countries will be displayed.
• The Fairtrade Foundation is running a stall in the Campaign Zone of the Meadows during the Edinburgh rally on 2 July. Volunteers will be asking people to sign up to the Fairtrade Foundation campaign on Caribbean bananas and giving out five-foot inflatable bananas to take on the rally. There will also be a stall in Hyde Park during the Live8 concert on 2 July.

The Fairtrade Foundation, Room 204, 16 Baldwin’s Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ.
Tel: 020 7405 5942 Fax: 020 7405 5943 Web: www.fairtrade.org.uk