Fairtrade Fortnight UK

Fairtrade Fortnight (UK) is the annual two weeks of campaigning and awareness building about Fairtrade.

The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer label which appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. In 2005 more than 5 million people, including farmers, workers and their families across 49 developing countries benefitted from the international Fairtrade system. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body that awards the FAIRTRADE Mark to products which meet international Fairtrade standards.

The guarantees behind the FAIRTRADE Mark are:
 * Farmers receive a fair and stable price for their products
 * Farmers and plantation workers have the opportunity to improve their lives
 * Greater respect for the environment
 * Small-scale farmers gain a stronger position in world markets
 * A closer link between consumers and producers

Fairtrade sales grow by around 40% year on year, and sales for 2004 are were over £130million. More than 700 products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark are now available across the retail and catering sectors.

By 2005, Britain had overtaken Switzerland to become the biggest Fairtrade market in the world, with coffee, bananas, tea and chocolate still the most popular choices. Fairtrade wine and beer, roses and footballs were introduced in 2004, joining fruit juice, other fresh fruit, cocoa, sugar, snacks, honey and other products. All major UK supermarket chains now sell Fairtrade products.

A 2004 MORI poll showed that the number of people who recognised the FAIRTRADE Mark had doubled to 39% since 2002. For those who buy Fairtrade products, 86% said the independent guarantee of the FAIRTRADE Mark is important to them.

Fairtrade Fortnight is promoted by networks around the country including development agencies CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, SCIAF, Tearfund, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement, as well as a wide range of other organisations: Shared Interest, Banana Link, People & Planet, the Mothers’ Union, The National Federation of Women’s Institutes, the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, churches and the UNISON and PCS trade unions.

In 2005 an estimated 7,500 events took place all over the country during Fairtrade Fortnight - everything from Fairtrade parades, concerts and debates to tea dances, fiestas and family days.

FairTrade Fortnight 2006
Dates: 6 - 19 March
 * Fairtrade Fortnight

References
 * Fairtrade Foundation press release, February 2005