Fairtrade International is enhancing market access by working alongside farmers and workers to strengthen their businesses, take greater control over their lives, and generate solutions that alleviate poverty, assure human rights, and build climate resilience.
The organization is working with farming co-operatives, 6,500 businesses and governments to make trade fair, and trigger a catalytic effect through providing livelihoods for farmers and people employed along the food supply chain while also contributing to reducing food insecurity across the globe and boosting the African economy.
While there are more than 1.9 million farmers in the Fairtrade system represented by 1,880 producer organizations across the globe, growth of Fairtrade farmers and workers from the year 2015 to 2020 stood at 389,324 with the top seven products including coffee, cocoa, bananas, sugar, flowers and plants, tea, and cotton, which represent more than 90 percent of the farmers and workers in the Fairtrade system.
Speaking today at the Boma Inn Hotel in Kenya, Fairtrade International Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Sandra Uwera, said that challenges of climate change are too big and urgent to be tackled by individuals adding that Fairtrade is expanding its model and engaging people and organizations to power the institution’s impact.
“This is Fairtrade’s most ambitious strategy to date, and it reflects the gravity of the challenges we face. Additionally, Fairtrade is an enabler to farmers and workers in developing countries to secure better livelihoods through tackling the injustices of the global value chain,” noted Uwera.
The CEO revealed that Fairtrade’s Base wage is set at a minimum of 70 percent of the take-home pay needed for a living wage, which has been established by the Global Living Wage Coalition of standard setters for more than 30 countries and regions.
As a result, according to Uwera, the changes mean wages will increase by up to 15 percent for thousands of workers in origins where workers currently earn less than the Fairtrade Base Wage.
“For instance in East Africa, introduction of the base wage in the floriculture industry has already resulted in significant increase in incomes for workers,” she exemplified.
Further, Uwera disclosed that Fairtrade producers’ coffee sales remained stable globally in 2020 as Fairtrade producers have been able to hold competitions with their high quality Fairtrade coffee to top markets such as Germany, the UK, the US, Canada, and France
She also added that producer sales for flowers remained almost stable, declining only two percent, despite massive logistical challenges due to the pandemic restrictions in the same year.
Uwera stated that Farmers and workers are embedded in all levels of Fairtrade’s governance and decision-making and understanding the impact of the company’s work, requires transparency and traceability, with the data to back it up.
“We unlock the power of Fairtrade supply chains with data-led insights that provide producers and companies with the tools to demonstrate Fairtrade’s impact and support learning,” she added.
Some of the global brands that support Fairtrade include Guylian Chocolates, Maltesers Chocolates, Ben n Jerry Ice Cream among others while some key customers and partners include Mars group, Carrefour Hypermarkets, Coop Supermarkets, Ben n Jerry (part of Unilever), Cargill, Barry Callebaut, B-Lab among others.
Locally in Kenya, Fairtrade Africa has supported leading brands like Kericho Gold and Dormans Coffee to source sustainable coffees and teas from Fairtrade certified value chains. Other brands include Zawadi Coffee (a women grown and owned coffee brand), Lecom from Machakos, and Umoja and Sireet Tea from the Rift Valley among others.
