A tangible thing everyone can do

Marking Fairtrade Fortnight, Thomas Baldwin hears how Fairtrade traders and campaigners in Scotland are facing the cost of living crisis.

FAIRTRADE Fortnight starts this year on February 27. As usual, the fortnight will be an opportunity for Fairtrade sellers to get the message out about the benefits of Fairtrade, with events all over the country and the opportunity to join online gatherings and hear from Fairtrade farmers.

This year’s Fortnight has been given the attention-grabbing hook ‘choose Fairtrade and save our favourite foods’. The campaign reflects a changing focus in Fairtrade over recent years, in which as well as guaranteeing a fair price for the producer, the climate and food security benefits of Fairtrade are emphasised.

“If cocoa farmers are not able to grow cocoa because of changing climate, in the future we are not going to be able to buy chocolate,” says Catherine Newman, Engagement and Communications Officer for the Scottish Fair Trade Forum (SFTF), Scotland’s Fairtrade network. “If the crop won’t grow then the farmer will have to stop farming and try something else. And then we won’t have tea, coffee, chocolate and so on.”

In order to meet Fairtrade mark or World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) certification, producers must meet certain environmental standards. For instance, over half of Fairtrade cotton farmers are organic farms, and some are investing in non-GM crops. Elsewhere, Fairtrade farmers are committed to non-harmful methods of farming, or are spending their Fairtrade premium on mitigation strategies such as planting trees to reduce soil erosion. “The sustainable development goals need Fairtrade,” adds Catherine.

But with prices rising and the cost of living crisis biting in the UK, can customers afford to keep making the ethical choices? “We’re nervous,” admits Tracy Mitchell, managing director of Just Trading Scotland (JTS). “We are concerned that as the cost of living pinch hits, there’ll be an everincreasing number of people for whom making an ethical choice just isn’t an option. That’s always been the case for a proportion of the population, and that proportion will increase.”

JTS are an importer of fairly traded food, and among much else are responsible for the 90kg rice campaign supported by many churches (90kg being the amount of rice a Malawian farmer has to sell in a year for a sustainable income). They also import other pulses, preserves and cooking sauces.

They weathered Covid-19 reasonably well – “We had rice at the start of lockdown, when people really wanted rice,” Tracy says – and have managed to increase their orders each year since 2020, but are seeing a ‘massive’ increase in shipping costs thanks to various international situations. “Particularly with our supplier in Sri Lanka, because of the problems there there are basically no imports to Sri Lanka, which means there are no empty containers to export products in.”

She says that ‘for those people that can afford to make the choice, the imperative is even more important than it used to be’.

“One of the things I am promoting in my church is being a conscious consumer - asking people to think about their shopping habits, not to swap everything but just a bit, a small shift. We’re thinking about the LOAF [local, organic, animal friendly, fairtrade] principle, and also about not buying stuff you just don’t need.

“As a society we are very into buying stuff, and if you cut out some of that you can afford to make ethical choices on some things.”

Catherine, while emphasising that Fairtrade goods aren’t necessarily more expensive (Co-op own brand tea, for example, is comparable to other supermarket brands) agrees. “We rely on farmers in the Global South, and it’s important even in the cost of living crisis to support the world’s most vulnerable. The onus is on people to choose Fairtrade if they are able, even if that’s just by getting one or two products a week - whatever you use the most.”

Karena Jarvie is the chairperson of the Perth and Kinross Fairtrade Group (the region is now a Fairtrade Zone), a member of the SFTF board, and for many years has been involved in selling Traidcraft goods through Kinross Parish Church – supported by other local congregations, one of the most successful church groups in Scotland. During lockdown, they kept sales up by taking orders through email and running a delivery service.

“To me, it’s so important because I feel it’s something very tangible we can do as Christians, showing love and care to others and also being just in our involvement with them,” she says. “We shouldn’t be buying things at the lowest possible price, if the people that have grown them are struggling to survive.

“And the other side, the climate change aspect, is helping to look after God’s creation.”

She says that so far their customers have been able to keep supporting them: “I think fortunately people realise the difference they are making when they buy from a Fairtrade stall, so I think that’s keeping them buying. They’re maybe making savings in other places but I have not had people saying we can’t buy any more.”

She also says that customers have been buying consumables such as Fairtrade tea, coffee and chocolate as presents, and that the group made up their own hampers to cater for this.

“The one thing we would say is it would be really good for as many churches as possible to become Fairtrade churches,” she adds. “That’s just saying that if you are having tea and coffee you will buy Fairtrade. I would hope churches do consider that and are not looking for cheap options.

“And then, in terms of running a stall I would say it’s so helpful. Some people think because you can get Fairtrade goods in the shops, that’s fine, we don’t need to promote them anymore. But it’s such a tiny amount of goods available in supermarket. If you can have a stall in church you are reminding people, and then hopefully they will be looking for the Fairtrade mark more generally.

“It really is such a tangible thing everybody can do, and it’s making such a difference to people who don’t have these things we enjoy.” ¤