Consumers will be hit with one key message over the next two weeks, as the Fairtrade Foundation aims to get consumers to rethink their shopping and switch one of their weekly staples to Fairtrade. The target for the fortnight is to achieve one million and one swaps, with backing from the major retailers and support from both loyal customers and newcomers.
The fruit-related activities will be a strong focus and will be backed by a health campaign to be launched at the Re:fresh Conference in London, in May.
Fairtrade ensures a guaranteed minimum price that covers the cost of sustainable production and the Fairtrade premium is an additional payment to producer organisations on top of the agreed price, which is intended for the social, economic and environmental development of farmers, workers and their communities.
The global economic downturn made last year an incredibly tough one for the world’s poor seeking a fair deal for their produce and its effects have been felt worst in developing countries, where up to an estimated 90m more people were thrown into extreme poverty in 2009, according to UN Millennium Development Goal figures.
In a YouGov survey commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation, seven out of 10 people said they cut back on their personal budgets in some way as a result of the recession, by eating out less for example. However, the UK public has remained loyal to the ethical movement, resulting in another increase in the value of Fairtrade sales, up on 2008 by 12 per cent to an estimated retail value of more than £799m. A total of 71 per cent of people said they are willing to swap one or more products to Fairtrade in the next two weeks. In the same survey, 42 per cent of people said they were happy to make Fairtrade bananas one of their everyday swaps during Fairtrade Fortnight, while 31 per cent said they would be willing to do the same with other fruit.
The Fairtrade Foundation estimates that if all bananas sold in the UK were Fairtrade, it would generate an annual premium of more than £19m.
However, while the estimated retail value of Fairtrade bananas increased by 13 per cent this year, the value of other Fairtrade-certified fruits fell by 25 per cent.
Mark Varney from the Fairtrade Foundation tells FPJ that this drop came as a result of retailers opting not to restock lines across their stores as they came back into season, predicting that shoppers would cut down on their spending and switch away from Fairtrade products. However, he insists that the overall growth of Fairtrade is a sign that consumers have remained loyal to the cause.
“Some 20-25 per cent of bananas sold in the UK are Fairtrade-certified and while volume growth has been flat this year, this is a sign that consumers are continuing to support Fairtrade,” says Varney. “There are some challenges in other areas of fresh fruit, such as citrus and grapes, but this has been driven by the reduction in the number of stores that Fairtrade lines are being placed into as a result of retailers forecasting a drop in demand, but that goes against what we have found.
“The Big Swap is about making sure we give consumers a reason to switch, making sure the category remains vibrant and clarifying to consumers exactly what a difference Fairtrade makes.
“We are then going to follow up our work on fruit with a marketing and PR campaign around Faitrade lines, set to launch this summer, so we have a dedicated focus on fruit in the pipeline.”
In fact, even though the estimated retail value of Fairtrade fruit has fallen, there have been many developments in the fresh fruit category, with standards in place for bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, soft citrus, avocados, coconuts, grapes, lychees, mangos, pineapples, melons, apples, pears, plums, nectarines and peaches.
The next new product will be sweet potatoes from producer group Asoproagroin, which will be harvested in Costa Rica during Fairtrade Fortnight and will soon be available in UK shops. The first shipment of grapes from MiFruta in Chile will hit the UK soon, with a price that was set through a price-setting project to extend the geographical scope of grape pricing to Chile, as previously the Fairtrade Foundation only had prices for South Africa, Namibia and Egypt.
To mark Fairtrade Fortnight, more than 1.4m bags of Fairtrade bananas in all Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative and Waitrose will carry Fairtrade Fortnight stickers, supported by Pratts, Winfresh, Dole, Fyffes and Mack Multiples. Morrisons is promoting its Fairtrade-certified melons and grapes in store.
Alongside this, two fresh fruit growers are coming to the UK to mark Fairtrade Fortnight - pineapple producer Diana Messauh will be coming over from Bomarts in Ghana and banana producer Nioka Abbott will be coming over from WINFA in the Windward Islands to tour the UK, visit campaign groups and see retailers.
WINFA co-ordinator Renwick Rose tells FPJ that the most important thing that Fairtrade has achieved is that it has allowed smaller banana producers in the Caribbean to have a place in an increasingly competitive market. “This is crucial given the banana regime and the price wars; it would have been very difficult to compete with the big multi-nationals selling Latin America bananas. We have seen Fairtrade prices 20-25 per cent higher than for conventional bananas and the premium has done some excellent work on community projects in places such as clinics and pre-schools.
“The money has also enabled Fairtrade growers to look at alternative investment in different areas.”
Harriet Lamb, chief executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, insists that the last 12 months have been “desperate” for many poor communities and small producers in developing countries. “For millions of growers and their families and communities, Fairtrade was able to make the difference that has helped them survive a difficult year and plan for the future,” she explains. “It is to the credit of the decent British and Irish public that they do care and despite the recession, they are still voting with their wallets for fairness and want to change the indignities of an unjust trading system. These challenging times have been a wake-up call and forward-thinking companies have also been re-evaluating their priorities, seeing sustainability as the way forward for business, building relations with producers and introducing many Fairtrade products in the past year.”
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