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‘Fair
Trade with Booker’ [2.05.06]
Booker, the UK’s leading cash & carry, has
launched its first range of Fair Trade products. Fair Trade
hot beverages are aimed at caterers.
The new Fair Trade range covers coffee, tea,
hot chocolate and sugar. It provides a great choice,
offering both coffee beans and granules and sugar sticks to
tagged teabags. More Fair Trade products will be introduced
into Booker throughout the year.
“The development of Fair Trade products is
part of Booker’s commitment to choice up, prices down and
better service,” said Ron Hickey, Director of Catering. “
We are working in partnership with Fair Trade to develop a
great range for caterers to build on the growing consumer
demand for these products.”
More on products and prices
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The
Fairtrade Foundation have appointed Martin Hill as Head of
Commercial Relations with immediate effect.
Ian
Bretman, Deputy Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said:
“We are delighted to welcome Martin to the Foundation.
Martin’s appointment will strengthen our growing team.
Martin’s background of 25 years at the Co-op means he brings
experience and understanding of both sides of our work –
inspiring both ethical shoppers and consumers and
successfully operating in a competitive retail environment”.
Martin
will work with retailers, caterers, wholesalers and more
than 200 companies licensing the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark
on over 1,500 Fairtrade products today.
Martin
said: “I am delighted to have joined a very strong team who
have been making significant progress in raising the profile
and penetration of Fairtrade products within mainstream
retailing. More and more major companies are now maximizing
their support for the FAIRTRADE Mark in order to deliver
what consumers are increasingly expecting.”
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All M&S tea and
coffee will soon be Fairtrade [from
Guardian,
6.03.06]
M&S marked
the start of Fairtrade Fortnight by announcing that, form
April, all their 38 lines of tea and coffee will
switch to Fairtrade. M&S estimate that this will increase
the value of Fairtrade coffee sold in British supermarkets
by 18% and the value of Fairtrade tea will rise 30%
Stuart
Rose, Chief Executive of M&S, said "Our customers have told
us they care about how our products are made and we want to
help them make Fairtrade part of their retail habit" 78% of
customers wanted to know more about the way goods are
produced and one in five said they would bur Fairtrade items
if they were available.
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M&S will
increase sevenfold the amount of FT cotton it buys and to
use it to develop new products lines, including men's formal
shirts and organic cotton babywear.
Top Shop
announced trial of produced Fairtrade Fashions
from People Tree, Hug and Gossypium at its London, Oxford
St. store from May.
Sainsbury's has ordered FT cotton to make 200,000 T-shirts
to sell in aid of the Comic Relief appeal.
ASDA
introduced a range of organic baby clothes last year.
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"Customers care more than ever how
products are made," says CEO, Stuart Rose
Marks & Spencer today unveiled a major
new campaign called 'Look behind the label' to tell
customers about the way its products are sourced and made.
Marks & Spencer has announced it will
become the first major UK retailer to sell clothing made
from 100% Fairtrade cotton. From March, t-shirts and socks
will be sold in M&S stores and on
www.marksandspencer.com.
For more information go to M&S
http://www2.marksandspencer.com/
There's more on Fairtrade cotton below
at:
Fairtrade certified cotton.
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New Year's Honour for Fairtrade (5.1.2006)
Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade
Foundation, has been appointed a Commander of the Order of
the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 New Year Honours List.
Harriet’s
award recognizes the growing significance of Fairtrade to UK
consumers and businesses and to the 5 million farmers,
workers and their families around the world who benefit from
the Fairtrade system. It also recognizes the importance of
the FAIRTRADE Mark’s independent guarantee of a better deal.
Harriet Lamb, Executive
Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said:
“This honour
celebrates the growing importance of Fairtrade which the
nation is gradually taking to heart. It is a tribute to the
achievement of all those who make Fairtrade work: from the
farmers and workers in developing countries, to the
companies and retailers who offer Fairtrade, to supporters
up and down this country who campaign tirelessly for
Fairtrade and of course everyone at the Fairtrade
Foundation. Fairtrade is a unique alliance of all these
people."
“Fairtrade
shows that trade can be managed in a way that benefits
farmers and workers while still
succeeding commercially. It is incredibly popular with the
public who want to play their part in making poverty
history. This award will further boost our determination to
realise our vision of a Fairtrade lifestyle for the public
here and a better lifestyle for farmers and workers in
Africa, Asia and Latin America”.
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School
Students' Fair
Trade campaign wins trip to Switzerland in citizenship
competition
(Dec
2005)
Four Year 12 students from
The Holy Trinity CE) School in Crawley developed a
campaign in Autumn 2004 to increase awareness of Fair trade
products in school and the wider community. They led
assemblies; worked with Year 9 citizenship classes and
organised a Fairtrade week in the school. They then took
their campaign into the wider community working with local
Cub and Brownie groups and organised a letter-writing
campaign to the local supermarkets.
Their written report won them
a place in the final of the Swiss Embassy's 'Exploring
Democracy' competition, where they made a winning
presentation to a panel which included the Swiss Ambassador
and Tom Levitt, MP. As part of their prize visit in
December 2005, they visited the UN in Geneva.
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Fairtrade certified cotton
(17.11.2005)
The FAIRTRADE Mark is
now available on products made with Fairtrade certified
cotton. These products, which include clothing and cotton
wool, are made from cotton grown by small farmers in India,
Peru, Mali and Senegal. Such farmers, like many other
agricultural commodity producers, are at the sharp end of
exploitation and injustice in international trade. Fairtrade
certification brings them the guarantee of a minimum price
plus a further premium to be used for community development
projects.
click on
the picture for more information from The Fairtrade
Foundation
Punjiben, cotton farmer, Gujarat, India
Punjiben has six children –
three sons and three daughters. She attends committee
meetings along with the other women in her village. She is
impressed with how women’s opinions are valued in the
Fairtrade system: “Our voices are equally important in the
committee. Our voices are strong in the decision making
process.” She plans in the future to develop her farm to
improve the crop yield. She would also like to have a flour
mill in the village so village women can grind millet and
wheat. At present the women have
to walk 3 km to the nearest mill.
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Nestlé launches a new FAIRTRADE
NESCAFE coffee
(7.10.2005)
Nestlé has launched NESCAFE Partners’
Blend, a new coffee carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark, This
is the first Nestlé product to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark -
which means the coffee has been bought from democratic
smallholder organisations certified to supply the
international Fairtrade market, and traded according to
agreed Fairtrade standards including payment of the
Fairtrade price.
The coffee in the blend comes from
five cooperatives of small farmers in El Salvador and
Ethiopia who, like many smallholders supplying the world
coffee market, have experienced real hardship because of
price volatility and the severe slump of recent years.
“This is a turning point for us and
for the coffee growers,” says Harriet Lamb, Director of the
Fairtrade Foundation. “It’s also a turning point for the
many people who support Fairtrade and have been pressing the
major companies to offer Fairtrade coffees. This just shows
what we, the public, can achieve. Here is a major
multinational listening to people and giving them what they
want – a Fairtrade product.”
For more information
about debate about Nestlé's controversial entry into the
Fairtrade market see:
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ABOUT NESCAFE
PARTNERS' BLEND COFFEE
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