South: Fair trade

Ian Paul
Politics Show South

Cocoa bean is major source of Fair Trade income

Just how ethical a consumer will you be this Christmas?

Will the chocolate, coffee, bananas, honey, orange juice, muesli, marmalade and wine you down over the festive season be fair trade or not?

And would you go out of your way to buy, say, fair trade flowers or footballs?

You could if you want to, you know.

The Fairtrade Foundation now has its brand on £100m of goods a year.

It is not just products, though.

Regional enthusiasm

Towns, companies, and even academic institutions across the South are lining up to get the Fairtrade mark.

There are already a number of Fairtrade towns - Dorking, Arundel, Brighton & Hove, Faringdon, Oxford, Lewes, Portsmouth and Southampton among them.

Reading is another, and Chris Coneybeer has been on a coffee crawl through the town for the Politics Show.

Chris Thomas; Reading has a history of Fair Trading

He started off in the Civic Offices, enjoying a cup of Fairtrade coffee with Chris Thomas, the council's Sustainability Manager at Reading Borough Council, which oversaw the progress of the borough to Fairtrade status:

Mr Thomas said: "Reading historically has been a global trading town and the food and fair trade issue is central to us."

Customer connection

Then it was on to the Global Cafe for another beverage with one of the customers: "People see fair trade as a way of making a difference.

"They feel a real connection with people producing the goods and are helping to make their lives better."

Just to ring the changes, he dropped in on Vintage Roots (where oddly, for a wine importer, he was offered another cup of coffee).

Neil Palmer: An enthusiastic Fair Trader

Neil Palmer, who has just started importing fair trade wine, told him: "Some of the money from this project goes directly back to South Africa and is used to improve the lives of people who work on the vineyard, their housing and schooling.

"They see a direct benefit from the produce being sold in this country."

All of these may be quite local initiatives. But there is no doubt that they are having a wider effect.

Wide range

There are 15 brands of fair trade coffee alone available in supermarkets across the country - last year it accounted for 18% of roast and ground coffee sales in Britain - only 3% of total coffee sales, since instant is less fair trade than the real thing.

Fair trade products popular among shoppers

But is it actually going to change the world?

According to Alex Singleton of the Adam Smith Institute, a free market think tank, the best way to help poor producers is to open up our markets to them.

He argues that the low price of coffee is more determined by higher production than ruthless buyers - and that fair trade actually encourages producers to keep producing when otherwise they would stop.

So is it more about salving our consciences or actually solving the problem?

Politics Show

Politics Show returns on Sunday, 16 January, at 12.30pm

Let us know what you think.

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