CBE in New Year Honours List

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours List.

Alongside just 94 other CBEs this year, Harriet’s award recognizes the growing significance of Fairtrade to UK consumers and businesses and to the 5 million farmers, workers and their families around the world who benefit from the Fairtrade system. It also recognizes the importance of the FAIRTRADE Mark’s independent guarantee of a better deal.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said:

“This honour celebrates the growing importance of Fairtrade which the nation is gradually taking to heart. It is a tribute to the achievement of all those who make Fairtrade work: from the farmers and workers in developing countries, to the companies and retailers who offer Fairtrade, to supporters up and down this country who campaign tirelessly for Fairtrade and of course everyone at the Fairtrade Foundation. Fairtrade is a unique alliance of all these people."

“Fairtrade shows that trade can be managed in a way that benefits farmers and workers while still succeeding commercially. It is incredibly popular with the public who want to play their part in making poverty history. This award will further boost our determination to realise our vision of a Fairtrade lifestyle for the public here and a better lifestyle for farmers and workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America”.

The Fairtrade Foundation awards the FAIRTRADE Mark to products that meet internationally agreed Fairtrade standards and is responsible for driving consumer awareness of Fairtrade in the UK.

A MORI poll conducted earlier this year showed that 50% of all UK adults now recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark. UK sales of products with the FAIRTRADE Mark reached £140m in 2004, and have been growing rapidly for the past five years by around 40% year-on-year. At present, 196 different companies offer products with the FAIRTRADE Mark.

Harriet continued: “In recent years, Fairtrade has grown faster than we could have imagined. There are now over 1,300 products from honey and mangoes to roses and cotton T-shirts. The British public currently drink over three million cups of Fairtrade hot beverages and enjoy nearly half a million Fairtrade bananas every day. But our vision is much bigger – if we are going to really tackle global poverty, then all of us here in the UK need to make Fairtrade our everyday habit. That’s our call for 2006, so that more farmers and workers in developing countries can participate in Fairtrade.”

For more information, please contact Martine Julseth or Eileen Maybin on 020 7440 7695/020 7440 7686 or e-mail martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk or eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk .

• Fairtrade Fortnight, March 6 – 19 2006 is the two-week period of Fairtrade campaigning and promotion which has cemented its place in the consumer calendar.
• The theme for this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight will be Make Fairtrade Your Habit. It will include a celebrity poster campaign where famous names will reveal their Fairtrade shopping habits.
• The full range of Fairtrade products is expanding all the time and now includes coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, apples, pears, grapes, plums, lemons, oranges, satsumas, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, fruit juices, rooibos tea, green tea, cakes and biscuits, honey, muesli, cereal bars, jams and marmalade, chutney and sauces, spices, nuts and nut oil, wine, roses, and sports balls, rice and now cotton products. The first products made with Fairtrade certified cotton were launched at a press conference in November 2005.
  

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