Dear sir,
Fairtrade fortnight runs from the last week of March to the first week of April, to highlight to the public the principles and products of fair trade. The campaign is to raise awareness about the importance of ethical trade and to promote fair trade products.
Fairtrade means workers' rights, safer working conditions and fairer pay, wherever these workers may be in the world. For the shopper it means high quality, ethically produced products. Choosing Fairtrade means standing with farmers for fairness and equality, against some of the biggest challenges the world faces. Choosing Fairtrade may mean paying a higher price but ultimately you are reassured that the person producing the goods is fairly paid in return.
Consumers are encouraged to learn that what we buy can encourage the development of a kinder fairer world. Fairtrade makes sure workers are paid properly and it takes into account working conditions and whether these are good enough.
The Fairtrade foundation has also launched an initiative called the ‘Endangered Aisle’. This is to shine a light on the fact that the production of common staples such as coffee, bananas, and chocolate is now at risk due to the difficulties in growing them, coupled to the escalating climate crisis. The Fairtrade Foundation will release new research highlighting how climate change is endangering the future of supermarket staples grown by farmers overseas. This is something I can relate to, having relatives that live in Australia reporting to me that they already struggle to obtain many fresh foods on their supermarket shelves. Banana crops were decimated by cyclones last year and then by extensive flooding that hit the country hard in 2022.
The Green Party believes that Fairtrade should be upheld both domestically and internationally to ensure that producers receive a fair price for their product and that workers at all stages of a supply chain receive a fair wage and have safe and humanitarian working conditions. The Green Party supports smaller, local, and fair-trade enterprises and believes that we should limit the concentration of power and wealth within the agriculture, food processing and trading industries.
Many thanks
Lisa Miller
Congleton Green Party