Archives: Press Releases

Bonn, 1 April 2020 – Fairtrade International announced increased flexibility in its standards to enable producer organisations to take immediate action to protect the health and livelihoods of farmers, workers and their communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amidst the rising fears of our farmers, workers and producers on the rapid spread of the coronavirus resulting in close down of agricultural operations, a decline of production and loss of sales, most of the producers in Asia and Pacific Region are currently taking steps to educate its farmers and workers to create awareness and prevent the spread of COVID-19 into their communities.

These are unprecedented and difficult times, which bring with them challenges to life and liberty that have not been experienced before, certainly not within our lifetimes. Even as we are being instructed to self- isolate and move apart, emotionally we also must find ways to come together, to act and be as one with our neighbours, our friends and our families, here and across the globe.

Around the world, business is adapting to minimise the spread of COVID-19. At Fairtrade Foundation, we’re doing our part by working virtually and following the recommendations of the British government and the World Health Organization (WHO). Our work is ongoing and we’re committed to assisting the producers that are at the heart of our system.

The UK is a nation of chocoholics, but many of us don’t know the bitter truth of exploited farmers behind much of the sweet chocolate we enjoy.

Fairtrade’s campaign is shining a light on the exploitation experienced by women farmers. It calls on companies to pay living incomes to cocoa farmers by 2030 to meet the UN’s Global Goals to end poverty.

Manchester, York, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Oxford will host special flagship community events this Fairtrade Fortnight (24 February-8 March 2020) that will feature keynote speeches from two West African women cocoa farmers and panel discussions with other inspirational women from the UK.

As sales of Fairtrade flowers from 2019 raise £1.3million for investment in social projects to benefit the workers behind the blooms, the Fairtrade Foundation announces a unique new initiative that will enable even more UK consumers to share the love and for the first time, support a community in Ecuador to benefit from the industry’s most high-impact and transparent solution to sustainability.

The Fairtrade Foundation, along with other members of BOND – a network of NGOs and charities working in international development – have together signed the below statement in response to the news that the government intend to merge the Department for International Development (DFID) with the Foreign Office.

In the run-up to the global COP25 climate summit, the global fair trade movement urges Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to recognise fair trade policies and practices as a crucial component of addressing the climate crisis.