Fairtrade Fortnight will be from Monday 9 September – Sunday 22 September 2024.
The Fairtrade Foundation (fairtrade.org.uk) says ‘2024 is our 30th birthday, so we want to use the occasion to highlight how 30 years of working together has made the FAIRTRADE Mark a leader of lifechanging impact for farmers and workers across the world. We know you’ll want to join us in celebrating the significant impact that the FAIRTRADE Mark has had in the world, and thank you for all your incredible support and contributions’.
It’s 30 years since Fairtrade products first hit the shelves and this year for Fairtrade Fortnight, we’re spotlighting how YOU can Be the Change, by choosing Fairtrade every time. Our goal is more than people just being aware, it’s about them encouraging an active choice to support over 2 million Fairtrade farmers and workers across 58 countries, wherever possible, to ensure they can earn a fairer wage.
This year’s campaign will highlight that however big or small a purchase this Fairtrade Fortnight, you have the power to #BeTheChange.
When you choose Fairtrade, you contribute to a fairer, more sustainable future for food production.
When you choose Fairtrade, you help ensure farmers receive a fairer price for what they grow.
When you choose Fairtrade, you help rebalance power in supply chains.
Be The Change, Choose Fairtrade.
Some of you will remember Traidcraft and may have purchased chocolate and other foods at church stalls in the past. There were very few Faitrade products in supermarkets at that time. Traidcraft was set up as a faith organisation in 1979. It was launched in Newcastle upon Tyne by Richard Adams with six members of staff. Its first catalogue featured a small selection of jute products from Bangladesh. Within two years tea, coffee and subsequently a wide range of other foods were introduced and in September 1983 the organisation moved into a 58,000-square-foot warehouse on the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear.In 2004 it opened a second warehouse and it also had a policy unit based in London, taking the staff total to over 140.
In 2018 it was announced that the trading arm of Traidcraft was facing closure and it ultimately entered administration in January 2023, citing the impact of price rises, foreign exchange fluctuations, and Royal Mail industrial action.
Transform Trade is a development charity which was renamed from Traidcraft Exchange in September 2022. It has an online shop store-transform-trade.org where you can buy fair trade greetings cards and Christmas cards. There are some Fairtrade products in supermarkets (particularly bananas) but the number of products has significantly reduced. Locally you can buy Fairtrade products in the Oxfam shop. Please can I encourage you to seek out Fairtrade products whenever you can. As the slogan of the Fairtrade Foundation says
Be The Change, Choose Fairtrade