Is the future of Fairtrade with big switches by big companies or increasing access to the pioneer brands?

This excellent question was also submitted in a comment on one of our posts. Our reader said:

"Cadburys says in the FT today that it's not trying to undermine the pioneering 100% Fairtrade companies such as Divine. However, Cafedirect saw a 5% decline in retail sales last year because of the penetration of supermarket own brands.

I am thrilled about the impact this will have on Ghanaian farmers but if we allow huge companies like Sainsburys, Starbucks and Cadburys to take over the direction of Fairtrade then I don't see how we are really challenging the fundamentals of a trade system dominated by a handful of very powerful companies. I understand that the focus has to be on producers, but importance of local shops and local companies cannot be isolated from the Fairtrade model.

My question for [The Fairtrade Foundation] is whether he thinks the future of Fairtrade is with big switches by big companies or increasing access to the pioneer brands. Is doing both realistically sustainable?"

We put the question to Fairtrade and Barbara Crowther answered:

"This is a fundamental question about the future for Fairtrade - does it lie with the big companies or the 100% pioneers? I think it has to be both, and I believe they can go hand-in-hand, if we do what we do best, and that is to act as one united movement for Fairtrade. 

We need the 100% Fair Trade organisations to be the gold standard, constantly pushing new boundaries in fairer trade practice - whether that's the way they support their producers, or by the really innovative way in which farmers have become shareholders of their own Fairtrade brands, like in the case of Liberation Nuts, Cafedirect or Divine Chocolate. But we also need the big companies to provide scale, to make Fairtrade visible on the high street for everyone, and to shake up their industries for a more sustainable future. Lots of the Fair Trade organisations say this themselves – that they always saw their own role being to help mainstream the whole idea of Fairtrade. I think they can rightly be proud of this moment.

Will every new Fairtrade brand survive in the long term? Probably not, in an increasingly competitive market. But the ones to survive will be the ones we love, we trust, and we want to buy because they’ve got great products and great values too."

Bibi van der Zee wrote about this very thing on The Guardian Word of Mouth Blog yesterday, check it out.

Comments

[trudy joyce]

wot tha?? it is absolutely awesome that cadbury take fair trade on and yes all companies should and we should all help the farmers and communities that feel that trafficking children has to occur, we can stop that. So keep it up, all companies should go fair trade and look further into working with the poorer communities whom these bigger companies have profited from for so long.

[Mark Simmons]

Thanks for bringing up and discussing this topic.

I believe Fairtrade can, and must, continue to push large companies to "do the right thing" *and* support emerging, pioneering companies.

[jodie]

I think Cadbury doing this will help others world wide-Great idea keep it up :]