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Tomy Mathews from Fair Trade Alliance Kerala (FTAK), is the third Fairtrade producer representative to be elected onto the Fairtrade Foundation’s Board. He joins Merling Preza Ramos, General Manager of PRODECOOP and Silver Kasoro, Director and Board member, Mabale Growers Tea Factory.

The appointment was confirmed at a Board meeting in central London earlier this month and means that now all three Fairtrade producer networks (the CLAC, the Network of Asian Producers and the African Fairtrade Network) are represented on the Board.

‘I am looking forward to working with the Fairtrade team in developing their strategy, helping them to scale up Fairtrade to benefit marginalized producers such as cashew farmers in Kerala, India,’ says Tomy, who is also a Board member of Fairtrade nut company, Liberation.

FTAK is located in Kerala, a province in south-western India. Its members are spread across the four districts on the Western Ghats of Kerala which has a strongly rooted tradition of farmers' movements to support impoverished and indebted farmers. FTAK was set up in January 2006 by members that had already been organised into farmers’ movements aimed at tackling the widespread problem of farmers' indebtedness. FTAK solely focuses on issues related to trade justice and views Fairtrade as an important tool in its efforts to regain farmers their rightful place in the global economy.

‘Since joining Fairtrade, our membership has increased from 2,600 to 3,200. Fairtrade is an important tool to regain the farmers their rightful place in the world trading system. I hope to represent these and other Asian farmers on the Foundation’s Board.’

Joining Tomy Mathews are four new Board members. They include Joy Thomson, Melissa Duncan, Patricia Alexander and Simon Maxwell.

Simon Maxwell has been Director of the Overseas Development Institute for the past ten years. Before that, he worked for ten years overseas, in Kenya and India for the United Nations Development Programme and in Bolivia for the UK aid programme, and for 16 years at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

Patricia Alexander is Managing Director of Shared Interest, a Fairtrade finance organisation with £22m investment lending to 41 different countries. Its mission is to provide financial services and business support to make livelihoods and living standards better for disadvantaged communities in some of world’s poorest countries. Prior to joining Shared Interest Patricia worked in the commercial sector and is a qualified accountant.   

Melissa Duncan is Head of Communications at Traidcraft and is responsible for corporate brand management, media relations and website both for the charity and the trading arm. Prior to joining Traidcraft she worked in the commercial sector including nine years with the W H Smith group, latterly as Head of Communications.

Joy Thompson is a member of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes Board (NFWI). She is a member of the NFWI in Jersey, where she is active in the island’s Fairtrade movement and in further education.

The new appointees will help the organisation deliver the goals of the strategy which, over the next five years, seeks to tip the balance of international trade in favour of disadvantaged producers through maximising the combined effect of changes in:

• the scale and impact of the Foundation’s work with organised farmers and workers in developing countries
• the attitudes and behaviour of UK consumers, businesses and government on fighting poverty through trade.

Specific targets include achieving a UK market share of at least 50 per cent in the top three product categories, and more than 10 per cent in at least six other food and drink categories. We hope that the number of farmers and workers in the developing world benefiting from sales of Fairtrade products in the UK will have more than doubled.

Other members of the Board are:

• Chair: David Clayton Smith, Director and Co-founder of Andrum Ltd
• Rosemary Byrde, Oxfam GB’s Market Access/Fairtrade Advisor
• Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of the new Consumer Focus – formerly the National Consumer Council (NCC)
• Bert Schouwenburg, Trade Union Organiser, GMB London Region
• Nabs Suma, Independent Consultant, organic and Fairtrade standards and certification

The Fairtrade Foundation is the independent non-profit organisation that licenses use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products in the UK in accordance with internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. The Foundation was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft and the World Development Movement, later joined by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes. Member organisations now also include Banana Link, Methodist Relief and Development Fund, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, People & Planet, SCIAF, Shared Interest Foundation, Soroptimist International, Tearfund and the United Reformed Church. 

 

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Notes to Editors

1.     The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 70% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 59 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

 2.     Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs &  spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys & cotton wool.

3.     7 in 10 households purchase Fairtrade goods, including an extra 2.3 million more households in the last year alone, helping Fairtrade sales reach an estimated half a billion pounds (approx £493m) in 2007, a 72% increase on the previous year. By the end of 2007 there were over 430 producer organisations selling to the UK and 632 certified producer groups globally, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers.

4.     The dates for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 are 23 February to 8 March.