Fairtrade is tiny: despite recognition levels of over 70% and sales of £500million per year, it is just a small fraction of total retail spend in the UK.
Although it benefits 7 million farmers/producers and immediate family members - this number is also tiny in comparison to the 2billion people in the world living on less than $2 per day. Moreover, the UN estimates that the recent hike in food & fuel prices has pushed an additional 100 million people globally into extreme poverty.
In order for Fairtrade to have a real impact in tackling global poverty it must grow rapidly by several thousand percent. Or the movement must have an impact that reaches out far beyond just selling products that are Fairtrade certified.
One of the most pioneering organisations that seeks to do both these things is Traidcraft Exchange. For example, they have set up a three year project to help develop sales of Fairtrade within India. With a rapidly growing middle class, this could offer a huge opportunity to poor producers in India. Meanwhile in Kenya, they have a long-term project underway to protect and improve the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale dairy farmers and informal milk traders.
Only by initiatives such as these will Fairtrade reach the scale required in order to win the life-or-death global fight against poverty.
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