Fairtrade: More than just branding

• Dancer
• 16 years ago
• Categories: articles
• Tags: articles

Do you buy Fairtrade products? Or do you think of it as just another marketing ploy? This recent article “Teach us how to fish – do not just give us the fish” from the Guardian puts a personal perspective on consumer purchasing power. Three producers talk about how their lives and those of their communities have been transformed.

Gerardo Arias Camacho, coffee producer, Costa Rica: “As a Fairtrade farmer, I finally feel competitive – I feel that I have a tool in my hand. It has given me knowledge, so that I am more able to defend myself and my people. I feel there is a future in front of us, because we can stay in our own country and make a living growing coffee… Fairtrade is not charity. Just by going shopping, you can make a difference.”

Do you or will you buy Fairtrade? Can one person’s consumer choices make that much of a difference? Can we afford not to hope so?