Sugar Farmer Joins Jerry To Launch Ben & Jerry's Fairtrade Vanilla

Photocall with Luis Ruiz Diaz and Jerry Greenfield at 12.30pm Sunday 30 July at Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on Clapham Common

A sugar farmer from a co-operative in Paraguay will join the legendary founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream on Monday 31 July to celebrate the launch of the first ice cream to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark, the certification label awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK.
Luis Ruiz Diaz, from the Manduvirá farmers’ co-operative in Paraguay, will share first hand with Jerry Greenfield the importance of Fairtrade for the hard working sugar cane growers who are amongst the first to benefit from Ben & Jerry’s commitment to include Fairtrade ingredients into their ice cream. As well as sugar, the ice cream contains Fairtrade certified vanilla sourced from four co-operatives of smallholders in India.
“I am very pleased to be meeting Jerry to congratulate him on Ben & Jerry’s being the first company to take up the challenge of producing an ice-cream made from our Fairtrade certified sugar,” says Luis. “With Fairtrade, the farmers have more motivation for the future, and they are caring for their land. They can now improve the standard of living for their families and the community, and ensure more education for their sons and daughters.”

This is the first ice cream product to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark in Europe. In an international agreement with the Fairtrade labelling network, Ben & Jerry’s will launch the Vanilla ice cream simultaneously in the UK, Ireland and Belgium, then in the Netherlands in August, with other European markets to follow.

“We’re delighted that shoppers can now get their first taste of an ice cream made with Fairtrade sugar and vanilla. While we enjoy the delicious vanilla flavour, the growers can enjoy using the Fairtrade premium to improve their communities,” says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation.

The Vermont-based ice cream makers say this is the beginning of a long-term commitment to introduce Fairtrade ingredients into their range, and work is already underway on the conversion of further flavours over the coming year.

"Fairtrade is about making sure people get their fair share of the pie. The whole concept of fair trade goes to the heart of our values and the sense of right and wrong. Nobody wants to buy something that was made by exploiting somebody else”, says co-founder Jerry Greenfield who has flown into London for the Vanilla launch and to attend Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on Clapham Common.
Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla is available from August at the same retail price as regular Ben & Jerry’s products - £3.79 (500ml) and £1.49 (150ml). It will be on sale in Sainsbury’s and selected Co-ops.

Notes:

1. Festival goers to Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on Clapham Common on Sunday 30 July will be able to get a pre-launch taste of the new Vanilla ice cream. The Fairtrade Foundation will also be running activities at the Sundae to raise awareness of the wider range of Fairtrade products now available in the UK.
2. Manduvirá co-operative is located in the village of Arroyos y Esteros (Streams and Swamps) in the southwest of Paraguay. Life for the sugar farmers is tough as the region is remote and isolated, farms are small and incomes are unreliable. Things have improved for the farmers since 1999 when they started supplying the international Fairtrade market. The first major project funded by the Fairtrade premium was the construction of a new office block with a clinic and community hall. The co-operative pays for a doctor, two dentists and two medics, and for laboratory analysis. These healthcare facilities are also open to non co-operative members who pay small fees and are saved the hour and a half bus ride to the next nearest doctor in the capital Asunción.
3. The Fairtrade vanilla is sourced from Uttara Kannada Small Farmers’ Association in the North Kannara district of the Western Ghats and three other farmers’ organisations nearby and exported through Eco-Agri Research Foundation. The villages where the farmers live suffer from poor infrastructure and social amenities because of their isolation and lack of roads. The nearest town is more than 30km away, making access to schools, maternity clinics and hospitals extremely difficult. The farmers are excited about supplying the UK Fairtrade market as this is their first experience of Fairtrade. They would like to use the Fairtrade premium to supply school meals and, in the longer-term, to build a maternity clinic as some of the women now travel the 30 kilometres to the nearest town to give birth.
4. Luis Ruiz Diaz is also visiting the UK at the invitation of The Universities and Colleges Catering Organisation (TUCCO). A three day conference in the University of St Andrews, Scotland (24-26 July) brought together the catering managers and suppliers to the 34 Fairtrade Universities (who have met nationally agreed goals on Fairtrade procurement and campaigning). As part of Fairtrade’s promise to bring consumers and producers closer together, Luis was reporting to them directly about the differences that supplying the UK Fairtrade market has made to his community in Paraguay.
   

Read the profile of the Fairtrade certified vanilla co-operative that supplies Ben & Jerry's

For further information or to arrange an interview with Luis Ruiz Diaz, phone 020 7440 7686/7695 or 07770 957 451 or email eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk or martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk.

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