Kokova Magazine

People around the UK will be asked to get loud and proud about Fairtrade during this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight, 28th February – 13th March 2010, with the theme Show Off Your Label.

Consumers, campaigners and businesses are already beginning to gear up, making their plans for this fun campaign proposition, which gives them the opportunity to tell the country why the FAIRTRADE Mark is their label of choice for the fortnight.

Fairtrade Fortnight, which will this year unveil some new celebrity endorsement, is the annual awareness raising promotion of the Fairtrade Foundation; when Fairtrade stakeholders and supporters aim to communicate the benefits that products certified by the Fairtrade Foundation deliver to producers on the ground in developing countries.

Throughout the fortnight, they organise thousands of events, everywhere from shops to the workplace, to schools to town centres, to get more people excited about the difference their everyday shopping could make.

This, combined with the increased visibility of Fairtrade provided by the companies gives an uplift to Fairtrade sales, which continue to grow despite industry trends.

The 'Show Off Your Label' slogan has been chosen to enable people to have lots of fun as they challenge family and friends, as well as ordinary consuming public, to motivate them to see the regular purchasing of Fairtrade products as a long-term contribution to tackling poverty - so that people in developing countries can bring about the changes they want and need in their lives and communities.

The development of the theme was inspired by the sorts of events organised by the networks of Fairtrade campaigners in the past. Fairtrade supporters love showing off their passion for Fairtrade, with ingenious ways of combining fun with a serious message.

Over the years, there have been all sort of exhibitionist antics. Last year, two campaigners in from the Hartlepool Fairtrade Steering Group even dressed up as tea-bags and jumped the Hartlepool Marina into the sea to draw attention to the plight of tea growers and how much the situation could be ameliorated if we could get more people making their cuppa Fairtrade.

In today’s world, many people see labels as a way of defining themselves. Choosing products with the FAIRTRADE Mark too says a lot about a person’s lifestyle and values.

Barbara Crowther, Director of Policy and Communications at the Fairtrade Foundation

The Fairtrade Foundation promotional materials of posters, banners, Action Guides and so on are full of ideas, such as suggesting people parade their Fairtrade peppercorns with friends, laud their Fairtrade lemons at their bookclub, shout about their Fairtrade socks at the gym, talk up their Fairtrade tea in the staff kitchen and demonstrate their baking skills by taking fruit cakes packed with Fairtrade ingredients to the office.

‘Showing off’ in these ways will give people the opportunity to share their enthusiasm for Fairtrade and Fairtrade products and to tell the story of the people behind the products. Some will even try ‘extreme showing off’, taking the FAIRTRADE Mark to unusual places like mountain tops and iconic local landmarks.

The FAIRTRADE Mark is the only label which gives groups of farmers and producers the means to improve their livelihoods through the guaranteed minimum price and premium for social, environmental and business projects.

Around 7.5 million people (farmers, workers, their families and communities) – across 58 developing countries in the developing world benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

During the Fortnight, several farmers of tea, bananas, and other produce will visit the UK to tour around the country attending Fairtrade Fortnight events, telling consumers about the healthcare, education and other projects they have been able to implement because of their sales on Fairtrade terms.

There will also be a much needed emphasis on cotton in the Show Off Your Label campaign to draw attention to the poverty facing more than 10 million West African people who rely on cotton for a living but who suffer from unfair trade conditions.

Even though one in four people say they have bought Fairtrade certified cotton products in the UK, still less than 1% of cotton fashion on the high street carries the FAIRTADE Mark, which guarantees a set price for the farmers who grow Fairtrade cotton.

With most West African cotton farmers earning less than $1 a day and subsidies paid to European and North American cotton farmers depressing world prices, it’s becoming practically impossible for small-scale farmers in West Africa to compete. 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the WTO Doha Development Round.

Meanwhile, the big retailers and companies have also responded enthusiastically to the Show Off Your Label theme and will be developing promotions in-store and in the media about their Fairtrade products and support for Fairtrade.

Announcements for 2011 are still under wraps but recent Fairtrade Fortnights have also seen companies making groundbreaking commercial commitments during the two week period.

Ben & Jerry’s announced for Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 that they were going 100% Fairtrade in the UK and throughout Europe by the end of 2011 and globally by end 2013.

For Fairtrade Fortnight 2009, Cadbury announced that Cadbury Dairy Milk would go Fairtrade and, the year before, Tate & Lyle said they were going to switch their retail branded sugar to Fairtrade.

Fairtrade campaigners organised almost 12,000 events in last year’s Fairtrade Fortnight entitled ‘The Big Swap’ which saw people and groups all across the UK swapping their usual purchases for Fairtrade ones and registering them on an on-line swap-o-meter, reaching the fantastic target of one million and one swaps.

The mainstay of the Fairtrade grassroots movement is now the 480 Fairtrade Towns which promote Fairtrade all year long and step up their campaigning with major pushes during Fairtrade Fortnight.
www.fairtrade.org.uk