Fairtrade campaign to focus on fruit

This month, the Fairtrade Foundation is set to launch a year-long marketing campaign in the UK in order to raise consumer awareness about the range of Fairtrade fruit available.

The campaign is set to kick off at the Big Chill Festival, held in the West Midlands on 5-8 August, which will see staged one of the more bizarre-sounding fruit-related events.

According to the Foundation, food designers and consultants Bompas and Parr have created a “Ziggurat of Flavour”, a huge black and white pyramid containing “a cloud of breathable Fairtrade fruit”, for the festival.

As the organisers explained: “The Ziggurat of Flavour will be a monolithic structure on the hills overlooking the Big Chill Festival. After negotiating the dense mist of vaporised fruit, visitors emerge onto a slide at the top of the structure. As they slide back down to the festival their kinetic energy will be harnessed to make the cloud even denser.”

For the first time ever, they said, visitors will be able to contribute to their five-a-day simply by breathing.

“Every single piece of fruit that goes in will be Fairtrade,” explained Faith Mall, press and PR manager at the Foundation. “This means that the fruit producers will get a fair price for their products, as well as an extra premium to spend on their community. So each vaporised orange, lemon and pineapple going into the Ziggurat will help producers in Ghana and South Africa build crèches, water pumps and health clinics.”

Following this grand launch, the Fairtrade fresh fruit campaign will reportedly include support from celebrities and Fairtrade licencees, as well as instore activities.

The Fairtrade Foundation will be producing marketing materials, and a dedicated website will point consumers in the direction of Fairtrade fruits in season, with producer profiles and other information on the growing range of fruit available under the Fairtrade certification.

“Fairtrade bananas currently have a 25 per cent share of the UK banana market, thanks to 100 per cent switches by Sainsbury's and Waitrose,” explained Ms Mall. “Awareness of Fairtrade bananas stands at around 64 per cent, but awareness of other fruit' is currently much lower, at 26 per cent. The range of Fairtrade fruit also includes limes, avocadoes, grapes, plums, melons, apples and pears. By increasing awareness of these other fruits, we will enable fruit growers in developing countries to sell more of their produce.”