Make it fair trade this fortnight

Meg Hillier MP is encouraging Hackney residents to buy fair trade products during this Fairtrade Fortnight (25th February to 9th March).

Meg has welcomed the Government’s announcement of further support to the Fairtrade movement and is urging Hackney residents to do the same.

Meg said, “Fairtrade helps support 7 million people in the developing world.

“Our shopping habits can make a real difference. Already the UK’s demand for African fruit and vegetables benefits a million farmers and their families.

“As a Coop MP I’m proud of the history of the Coop in pushing for fair deals and unadulterated food”.

The Hackney Fairtrade Group is welcoming a Fairtrade producer from Mali to Hackney on Saturday 8th March, 12pm at Hackney Town Hall. The group is campaigning for more Hackney shops and businesses to use Fairtrade products and they hope to obtain Fairtrade Town status for Hackney in the near future.

Fair trade sales are becoming increasingly popular. Every 2 years for the last eight, UK shoppers have doubled the amount of fair trade goods they buy.

Fair trade sales in the UK have been growing 40 per cent per year on average – a growth of over 1,000 per cent since 1998.

This growth is not restricted to the UK: the market for fair trade labelled products has been growing worldwide at 30-40 per cent a year. The areas of particular growth were: cocoa (93%), coffee (53%), tea (41%), bananas (31%) and cotton (doubled in 1 year).

The Government has led international efforts to secure fairer trade rules. As part of this the government has committed £12 million on Fair Trade promotion since 1997 and $750 million every year from 2010 on Aid for Trade (which helps promote developing countries’ ability to trade by investing in relevant infrastructure, among other things).