Fair Trade

At Bishop Heber High School, on the 26th March 2009, we organized and held a Green Day in which we learnt about how we affect the environment and solutions to reduce the harm to our habitat. Part of our Green Day was to hold a Fairtrade tuck shop, selling a number of all-vegetarian Fairtrade products. These included:

There are also many other Fairtrade products available to buy and these are just the ones we sold at school. We accompanied the shop and asked 20 people their opinion on the Fairtrade chocolate. We asked them whether they preferred this chocolate to others such as Galaxy or Dairy Milk and whether they would choose to buy Fairtrade over another type of chocolate in the supermarket. The results were 16 people preferred the Fairtrade chocolate to other chocolate and would choose to buy Fairtrade if it were available at the supermarket. After looking around the tuck-shop, we interviewed Mr. Lowe, the seller of the products and asked him what sold the most. We found out that two products were most popular, these being the Divine milk chocolate and the Fairbreak bars. We also found out that he owned his own green shop in Birkenhead where he sells Fairtrade products and that all the profit he makes goes to a community centre to help the less fortunate. Mr. Lowe’s generosity was inspiring and encouraged us to get involved and make as good an effort as he does. Overall, we think that the tuck-shop was a great experience as we raised around £50 and it introduced people who had not tried Fairtrade products before and encouraged people to buy Fairtrade products elsewhere.

In having this eco day it encouraged us to research into Fairtrade ourselves to find out more about the foundation. We found out that there are Fairtrade highlights every fortnight shown on the website, including awards, the sharing of stories and details on many other different events that are also held in aid of Fairtrade. From the website we began to understand what Fairtrade is about and how it works as the website was very helpful. It told us that Fairtrade is about the primary producers of products receiving a fair share of any profit made. The organisation is all about sharing the wealth so controlling a trade and ensuring it is fair. These primary producers are the workers and farmers and are the centre of the Fairtrade system. The Fairtrade organisation is concentrated in Third World countries such as Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, as exploitation is most prevalent in these areas. Also, we found out about the key activities which they are involved in. These are:

• Providing an independent certification of the trade chain, licensing use of the FAIRTRADE Mark as a consumer guarantee on products
• Facilitating the market to grow demand for Fairtrade and enable producers to sell to traders and retailers
• Working with our partners to support producer organisations and their networks
• Raising public awareness of the need for Fairtrade and the importance of the FAIRTRADE Mark

From the website, we have found out about how you can get involved in Fairtrade too. This includes donating to them, taking part in campaigns, buying their Fairtrade products, interacting online, going to events or even arranging your own events.

Coffee sorting Uganda ©Simon Rawles

Overall, after taking part in this day, we have realized that there are many people around the world that do need our help. By buying most brands that we buy, the people that put in the most work; the primary producers; are earning the least amount of money. Is this fair? By simply changing what brand of products we buy sometimes, it is amazing how we can help others across the whole world in their day to day life. One bar of Fairtrade chocolate can make a big difference in a person’s life. What makes such a small difference to us, makes an enormous difference to someone else, so please just think next time you pick up a chocolate bar from the supermarket. We have learnt how people depend on the money from Fairtrade and if we could increase this amount of money, we could help even more people that are in need. We think you should join us. We have learnt a lot from this experience and we are personally going to support the campaign by buying Fairtrade products whenever possible. We are going to make the effort so why don’t you? For more information, visit the Fairtrade website at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ and find out about fantastic Fairtrade recipes, details on how you can be involved and much more.