Fairtrade Foundation Annual Review 2008/2009 Highlights in numbers High awareness 7 in 10 people recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark Higher sales Over £700m spent on Fairtrade goods in the UK in 2008 More people Producer groups in 56 developing countries from Rwanda to Vietnam now supply the UK market More products 1,514 new Fairtrade products on shelves for fi rst time in 2008 Leading the way Worldwide, Fairtrade in the UK still the most dynamic and innovative Citrus in South Africa Fairtrade in South Africa works within Black Economic Empowerment legislation. Workers on Zebediela, a farm growing Fairtrade certifi ed citrus fruit, have used their Fairtrade premiums to invest in a crèche for workers’ children, allowing parents to bring in extra money for their families. Welcome The Fairtrade Foundation is the independent charity based in the UK that licenses use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products that meet internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. As Chair of the Fairtrade Foundation, I’m delighted Our vision to present the Annual Review for 2008/2009. In the Our vision is of a world in which justice and second year of our Tipping the Balance strategy, we sustainable development are at the heart of trade now face not only the goals we set ourselves, of structures and practices so that everyone, through scaling up the reach and impact of Fairtrade, but their work, can maintain a decent and dignifi ed also the challenges imposed upon us by the global livelihood and develop their full potential. To achieve economic downturn. My experience in building strong this vision, Fairtrade seeks to transform trading brands and consumer marketing allows me to be structures and practices in favour of the poor and confi dent that shoppers will continue to trust in and disadvantaged. By facilitating trading partnerships choose the FAIRTRADE Mark. based on equity and transparency, Fairtrade contributes to sustainable development for I visited Rwanda earlier this year where I spoke to marginalised producers, workers and their government ministers in Kigali and also visited coffee communities. Through demonstrations of alternatives and tea growers. I saw how the democratically elected to conventional trade and other forms of advocacy, farmers’ committees work together and decide how the Fairtrade movement empowers citizens to to distribute the Fairtrade premiums within their campaign for an international trade system based community. I saw the nursery schools they had built, on justice and fairness. their investment in skills and training, and the improvement in the quality of their coffee. Our mission The Fairtrade Foundation’s mission is to work with I met people like Juvenal Rurangwa and Jemma Uwera businesses, community groups and individuals to who were working hard to rebuild their lives. The key improve the trading position of producer organisations to their success was co-operation. All they asked was in developing countries and to deliver sustainable the dignity of a fair price for their efforts. livelihoods for farmers, workers and their Our achievements this year have continued to be communities by: a source of pride, and as we look forward, the - Being a passionate and ambitious development co-operation I saw in Rwanda will inspire us; as we organisation committed to tackling poverty and build new coalitions and forge fresh partnerships with injustice through trade producers, NGO partners, business and consumers to make the voice of our people’s movement for - Using certifi cation and product labelling, through change even louder. the FAIRTRADE Mark, as a tool for our development goals - Bringing together producers and consumers in a citizens’ movement for change - Being recognised as the UK’s leading authority on Fairtrade. DAVID CLAYTON-SMITH Chair of the Fairtrade Foundation Board Fairtrade Foundation Annual Review 2008/2009 1 Our global impact It’s 15 years since the fi rst Fairtrade chocolate, Windward Islands banana farmers take control coffee and tea appeared on shop shelves. We’re a The banana industry in the Windward Islands was gangly teenager, growing everyday but still holding developed to supply the UK in the 1950s. Since then massive potential. We have also proved the naysayers nearly all bananas have been produced by small-scale wrong. Fairtrade is working. It works for the millions farmers, who were required by law to sell them to of farmers and workers and their communities in the banana companies whose role was to sell them on developing world who can sell their crops as Fairtrade to the exporter and provide various agricultural and for whom Fairtrade is building an architecture of services. The farmers had long wanted to take on hope, showing that trade can be managed differently. these roles themselves to reduce the supply chain Because it works for producers, it also works for UK and have more control of their industry but were shoppers, seven out of ten of whom bought goods constrained by law. carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark last year. And because When the farmers came together in 2000 it works for farmers and shoppers, it works for and began to engage with Fairtrade, their status business too. and infl uence was boosted. Changes in Fairtrade We still have a mountain to climb if we are to tip the Labelling Organisation’s certifi cation system and also balance of trade in favour of poor producers, but our to banana legislation on the islands paved the way for unique alliance of supporters is slowly moving forward the farmers’ group to take over the role of the banana through the power of a million small steps. Sometimes companies in managing the banana supply chain up to we leap forward – as when the banana farmers in export. This process was crucially underpinned by the the Windward Islands took control of their supply decision of farmers to use their Fairtrade premium to chain, or when a Palestinian olive farmer glows with fund the resulting legal battle and transition process. pride on seeing his oil on the shop shelf for the fi rst As a result, new staff were hired and trained in the time. When you see the farmers taking their business islands, and payment and pest control departments back into their own hands, against all the odds, then created. Farmers now have a clear understanding you really know that Fairtrade is indeed working. of the banana industry and a stronger, more open As Renwick Rose from Windward Islands Farmers relationship with the exporter. They are now in a Association said of their achievement ‘For years better position to increase their income than before, farmers were considered as the proverbial “hewers of empowering them in their communities and wood and drawers of water”, producing to the dictates nationwide. and for the benefi ts of others. They were thought to be incapable of managing their own business. The transition to farmer control has demonstrated beyond the shadow of doubt that farmers can do Farmers and workers in 56 countries sell it for themselves.’ Fairtrade certifi ed products to the UK HARRIET LAMB AFRICA Uganda LATIN Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation Benin Zambia AMERICA Burkina Faso Zimbabwe Argentina Cameroon Belize Comoros ASIA Bolivia Islands China Brazil Dem. Rep. of East Timor Chile Congo India Colombia Egypt Indonesia Costa Rica Ethiopia Pakistan Ecuador Ghana Palestine El Salvador Kenya Papua New Guatemala Ivory Coast Guinea Honduras Madagascar Philippines Mexico Malawi Sri Lanka Nicaragua Mali Thailand Panama Morocco Vietnam Paraguay Mozambique Peru Namibia CARIBBEAN Rwanda Cuba Senegal Dominican South Africa Republic Tanzania Windward Togo Islands Tunisia Haiti Five big steps Step one: Increasing Step two: Shifting to tip the balance Fairtrade’s impact on public opinion and producers’ lives consumer lifestyles to make Fairtrade the norm Fairtrade Foundation Annual Review 2008/2009 2 In 2008 an estimated $10.3 million of premium was paid to producers from UK Fairtrade banana sales ‘For us, there can be no greater challenge, than that of fi ghting for the right to work, the dignity of earning a livelihood and providing for our families and contributing to the development of our communities and by extension our countries, these Windward Islands. By assuming responsibility for the banana industry, WINFA and Fairtrade have given us this opportunity.’ Marcella Harris, President of WINFA (Windward Islands Farmers Association) Step three: Expanding Step four: Growing Step fi ve: Scaling up business engagement Fairtrade’s share and developing the with Fairtrade from of key markets to Fairtrade system compliance to deeper propel sales to a commitment new level 3 Increasing the impact of Fairtrade ‘I’m delighted that Fairtrade certifi ed Palestinian olive oil will be on sale in British supermarkets. Olive oil production plays an essential part in the West Bank economy. In buying this oil, British shoppers will be helping the farmers of Palestine to make a living.’ Rt Hon Gordon Brown, Prime Minister What we said: How are we doing? We aim to double the By the end of 2008 ‘I can’t change the number of producers the number of political situation but I selling Fairtrade producer groups can change my economic goods in the UK, so supplying the that disadvantaged Fairtrade market situation. Selling my olive farmers and workers had increased by oil through Fairtrade will help can win deeper 40 to 463. me to support my family and benefi ts from send my children to school.’ Fairtrade. Our target for 2012 is 900 Mahmoud Issa, producer groups. olive farmer, Palestine Fairtrade Foundation Annual Review 2008/2009 4 ‘Producers are at the heart of Fairtrade. They are equal partners in a dignifi ed exchange and the growing presence of producer representatives in bodies like the Fairtrade Foundation is a recognition of this reality.’ Tomy Mathew, Fair Trade Alliance Kerala, representing the Network of Asian Producers Farmers, workers, their families and communities Economic underpinning of peace in the developing world are benefi ting from Fairtrade.