Fairtrade – what a great organisation!
Since the launch of their ethical lable in 1988 they have advanced to a position in which they support over 1.2 million farmers in over 66 countries – including over 700,000 producers and agricultural value chains in 29 African countries.
The UK is the most supportive nation of Fairtrade in the world, by any measure. I think that is why I was invited to be a keynote speaker at their annual convention in Addis Ababa last weekend – I was honoured to accept. You can find my speech on our website.
My main theme was the importance of building the private sector, not just increasing development assistance, in order to make a long-term and sustainable contribution to reducing poverty.
I suppose there were some 200 delegates at the convention – from many parts of Africa as well as international supporters. And what impressed me most was the way in which producers, traders and marketers had all been brought together to decide on the future direction of Fairtrade.
The feeling was one of bottom-up, not top-down.
African producers still face many huge problems – lack of credit, poor infrastructure and obstacles in bringing their produce to market. But Fairtrade is still going from strength to strength, despite the economic downturn, and I came away from the convention re-enthused and optimistic about the future. (And full of some excellent Fairtrade coffee.)