‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ is an annual campaign organised and funded by the Fairtrade Foundation to increase awareness of Fairtrade products, which takes place every August.
It’s goal is to allow workers and farmers in developing countries to get a better value, through fairer prices, fair working conditions and favourable terms of trade.
The certification label by the organisation ensures a business has purchased ingredients with at least a minimum price required to cover the sustainable cost of production, or the market price when it’s higher.
There is also a ‘Fairtrade Premium’ payment. This is an additional amount which goes into a communal fund for workers and farmers to use, to improve the economic, social and environmental conditions.
Around 60% to 80% of the world’s food is grown by women. Yet, they often don’t own the land and see little of the profit made from it.
Fairtrade promotes awareness of this issue through videos like the one below which has so far been viewed over 170,000 times.
To help address this, Fairtrade created a Women’s School of Leadership in Cote D’Ivoire, to support female farmers. The objective is to increase their revenue through smarter farming and give them the confidence and skills to start businesses and be leaders.
Farmers are on the front line of climate change. For millions of farming families and communities around the world, the impacts of climate change are an everyday reality. Reports of farmers abandoning their land due to drought are becoming more frequent.
Kenya is listed among the top 20 countries most affected by climate change and it is hoped that, with some assistance, farmers and workers could take action to help mitigate the impact.
