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Reflecting on
a Fair Future
More than 300 business leaders, political figures,
campaigners, NGOs and producers came together
on 15 October 2014 for Fair Future, an event to
celebrate the 20th anniversary of the FAIRTRADE
Mark in the UK. Broadcaster and Observer ethical
journalist Lucy Siegle described the day, held at the
Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster,
as ‘an opportunity to kick the tyres of a movement’
that has achieved much – but as Harriet Lamb,
CEO of Fairtrade International commented,
‘still stands in the foothills of a mountain of injustice’.
In the opening keynote speech, the Rt Hon Justine
Greening, Secretary of State for International
Development, talked about the responsibility of
businesses going ‘beyond business as usual’ for
trade, which is the most important driver of growth in
developing countries. She also stressed the need to
look to the next 20 years and reaffirmed the Department
‘Can we fix it?’
panel discussion
The first panel debate of the day, chaired by Harriet Lamb,
challenged the audience to offer their difficult questions,
comments and bright ideas on seeking further change
and fairer trade. Harriet asked both the audience and the
panel: ‘What are the new ideas that will drive change?’,
and quoted Oscar Wilde’s quip that ‘an idea that isn’t
dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all’.
John Steel, CEO of Cafédirect, shared his thoughts
on the need for new pioneers like the original Fairtrade
organisations that are born out of taking risks and
making changes to the way businesses trade.
for International Development’s ongoing support for
Fairtrade with £18 million invested over six years.
Fatima Ismael, General Manager of the SOPPEXCCA
co-operative of coffee farmers, talked about the
transformative change she has seen over two decades
in Nicaragua, including SOPPEXCCA’s growth from
68 to 650 producers and an increase to 30% of female
members who now own their own land. In 1991
only 1% of coffee was exported via co-operatives
in Nicaragua – this has grown to 30% in 2014 and
is transforming communities.
The power of the Fairtrade
brand is absolutely undeniable.
Rt Hon Justine Greening
Rob Michalak, Global Director of Social Mission at
Ben & Jerry’s, explained how they are always looking
at lifting the bar, sharing equity and linking prosperity
with producers, and how business needs to take a
wider leadership role in this.
Dr. Nyagoy Nyong’o, Executive Director of Fairtrade
Africa, talked about how the supply chain is still controlled
by too few players and how there is still a greater need
for transparency and equality. She told everyone in the
room that as we are all actors in these supply chains,
we need to put our commitments on the table and
understand every part of the chain and its barriers.
Better transparency in supply chains remained a key
subject in the discussion and the need for businesses
to realise that it is not always what you do but how
you do it that matters.
Alison McGovern, Shadow Minister for International
Development, joined the panel to congratulate Fairtrade
on its achievements in the last 20 years and said that
broad cross-party agreement on development issues
was progressive politics. She talked about how it was
clear that the UK public has an appetite for government to
do more and put greater emphasis on the transparency in
supply chains agenda by making better trade deals,
as well as a need for a transparency in supply chains
measure in the new Modern Slavery Bill.
Challenges from the audience included the need for
bigger businesses to look outside their own brands
and promote smaller businesses, better clarity from
big businesses on the procurement in supply chains,
and whether Fairtrade can call to account the
corporations they have engaged and get them
to make their commitments public on the internet
and open it up to public feedback.
You can read Harriet’s blog on ‘dangerous ideas’ here:
Fairtrade.org.uk/en/media-centre/blog/2014/
october/dangerous-ideas-wanted
Video message from
HRH The Prince of Wales
q
HRH shared his congratulations to the Fairtrade
movement on the success of the last 20 years and
encouraged everyone to use the occasion to renew
their energy to deliver a fair future. You can see his
message as part of an interactive 20-year timeline
here: http://20years.fairtrade.org.uk/
‘Consumer apathy or campaign
revolution?’ panel discussion
Our second panel of the day focused on the role of
consumers and campaigners and the influence that
the next generation of ethical shoppers and trade justice
campaigners could make to the current retail landscape.
Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK,
chaired the debate which also shared new GlobeScan
research commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation
surveying 13-20 year olds. It found that ‘Generation
Fairtrade’ values Fairtrade, is engaged in what it does
and cares about human and worker rights issues.
One in three schools in the UK is now working towards
Fairtrade status.
Panel member Gabriel Marques-Worssam – a
campaigner, Fair Trade Wales volunteer and Oxfam
GB youth board member – claimed that today’s youth
are not apathetic but feel disempowered when it
comes to lobbying government and big business
on the subject of trade and sustainable business.
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Jenny Willott, MP for Cardiff Central, addressed the
issues around market cost for sustainable purchasing
and suggested that research carried out by the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
showed a divide in how many people are able to
choose to pay more for ethical goods. She challenged
government to make it easier for people to make
ethical choices through company reporting in the
UK and EU, support companies in doing this and
making the information accessible to consumers.
YOUR CHOICE MAKES
A DIFFERENCE.
Ian Cranna, Vice President of Marketing and Category
EMEA at Starbucks Coffee Company, responded to
comments on the misconception of Fairtrade and whether
more can be done to educate about how Fairtrade works.
He said that young people are the instigators of positive
change and that the most important thing for corporations
is to take decisions through the lens of ethical sourcing
and to overcome the complexities of communicating this
to consumers. He added that there is much more to be
done in this space over the next 20 years: ‘Beneath the
simplicity of the Mark, Fairtrade is fundamentally complex
and we need to do a better job of unpacking this’.
After our first panel discussion, as images with
messages from local campaigners from across the
UK played behind her, Sue Bentley, Chair of the
Fairtrade Foundation’s National Campaigner Committee,
invited everyone to occasionally peel a banana
upside down as a reminder of how useful it is to look
at issues from a different perspective. She also shared
a quote from the Swedish Church: ‘Take care there are
people in your shopping trolley’.
‘Better Business
towards a Fair Future’
The panel was led by Baroness Lola Young and featured
Mark Price, Abhishek Jani, CEO of Fairtrade India, and
Andrew Horton, Trading Director at Oxfam GB, and
focused on the question: ‘How does business need
to change its act?’
The afternoon’s discussions on the role of big business
in a fairer future started with an appearance by TV
presenter and businessman Nick Hewer who gave
his perspective on Fairtrade following a recent
trip to visit banana producers in St Lucia. He said
that ‘supermarkets need to build up a reservoir of
goodwill with their customers and seeing Fairtrade in
store brings that goodwill and even affection’ and that
consumers will pay a penny or two more for their bananas
because this ‘will make no difference to them but a world
of difference’ to the producer.
Abhishek shared worrying statistics on modern agriculture
including that 285,000 farmers in India have committed
suicide since 1995 and that 40% of farmers want to leave
agriculture. He said that we need to face up to the crisis
and focus on partnerships across the value chain for
greater transparency.
q
You can see the short film of Nick’s visit to St Lucia by
scrolling to 2014 here: http://20years.fairtrade.org.uk/
In business you have to
earn people’s trust and respect
and even their affection.
Nick Hewer
Kicking off the business panel discussion, Mark
Price, Managing Director of Waitrose, stated that healthy
‘high streets’ need healthy ‘back streets’ and that he
believed ‘people aren’t buying Fairtrade because it is
charitable but because it is better’.
People buying Fairtrade
are not buying it because it
is charitable, they are buying
it because it is better.
Mark Price
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Andrew Horton reflected on recent research by Oxfam
GB, including their ‘Behind the Brands’ campaign,
and on putting more pressure on companies to look
at how their practices really impact the producers.
He suggested that the inherent competitive nature
in these companies means that they do take an
interest in this, that there is an appetite to improve
and that we should promote the good things that
larger companies do to encourage this.
The audience offered many challenges on purchasing
principles, minimum price and the issue of retail price
drops. The panel also talked about the difficulties of
the price war era and balancing the need to continue
to deliver sales for producers by remaining market
competitive while charging a fair price for producers.
YOUR CHOICE MAKES
A DIFFERENCE.
Fairtrade towards 2020
Michael Gidney, Chief Executive of the Fairtrade
Foundation, rounded up the event by looking
towards the future of Fairtrade to 2020. He reflected
on the banking crisis, the horsemeat scandal, the Rana
Plaza factory disaster, and nearly 285,000 farmer suicides
in India since 1995, and challenged whether the idea of
‘free trade’ has been exposed as ‘a myth that’s had its
day’, which only benefits a powerful few at the expense
of the many. He also announced a number of new
initiatives taking Fairtrade ‘from labelling to enabling’,
including a new project to champion women coffee
farmers in East Africa, partnership projects with
dedicated Fair Trade businesses to deliver deeper
impact for farmers and workers, and new sourcing
programmes to increase Fairtrade market opportunities
for small-scale farmers growing sugar, cocoa and cotton.
You may need an architect,
highly trained, once or twice
in your life. You may need a
doctor, highly paid, occasionally.
But you need a farmer three
times a day. Let’s make sure
we value them equally.
Michael Gidney
Evening reception
At the evening reception, delegates sampled some
delicious Fairtrade wine and queued for the Fairtrade
photo booth. Allegra McEvedy MBE and Patron of the
Foundation stole the show, presenting the special
Fairtrade at 20 Awards. Divine Chocolate’s toffee and sea
salt milk chocolate was named the UK’s Favourite
Fairtrade Product, with Zaytoun olive oil and The Real
Easter Egg as runners up. The Isle of Man Fairtrade
Group scooped the Outstanding Campaign Award for
organising an inspirational schools conference which an
independent panel of judges felt perfectly represented the
effective community level campaigning that has been at
the heart of Fairtrade’s success over the past 20 years.
Fairtrade Yorkshire and Preston and South Ribble
Fairtrade Group were also recognised as runners up,
while Garstang Fairtrade Town received a Special
Recognition Award for the unique role they played in
establishing the first ever Fairtrade Town.
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Fairtrade UK’s 20th birthday was an inspiring and
energising day and a meeting of the whole movement
which had gathered both to celebrate our achievements
but more importantly debate how we can bring even
more change to trade in the next 20 years.
YOUR CHOICE MAKES
A DIFFERENCE.