Ten years of Fairtrade empowerment

Fairtrade cotton farmer Sugna Jat, 30, picks cotton together with her husband, Nandaram Jat, 40, in their farm in Maheshwar, Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, India.

This month, Fairtrade New Zealand marks its tenth birthday, and there’s much to celebrate.

Public awareness of Fairtrade issues is broad. In a recent poll, 78% of Kiwis recognised the Fairtrade logo, and 59% agreed that it stood for a better livelihood for farmers in developing countries.

Last year, Kiwis spent $89 million on Fairtrade-certified products - a growth of 28% on the previous year's sales figures. The numbers have been making such leaps every year. Globally, the Fairtrade industry is worth NZ$10.2 billion per year, and growing.

The core intention was never to focus on snack food per se. Rather, Fairtrade projects focus on key crops where small farmers depend on the most volatile international commodity markets.

"Globally, there are around 25 million coffee farmers; most are entirely dependent on coffee for their livelihoods," says Molly Harriss Olson, CEO of Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand. When farmers' family members are included, there are actually 75 million people whose lives depend on the wildly fluctuating prices attached to the world's caffeine buzz. While New Yorkers pay US$5 for a latte, Latin American coffee growers have sometimes gotten the same US$5 for a hundred-pound (46kg) sack of beans.

"When some of the hungriest people in the world are the same individuals producing the food that goes on our tables, we really must reflect on how well the system is working for everyone," Olson says. Half a billion smallholder farmers produce 70 percent of the world's food. In a bitter irony, those same small farmers make up half of the world's hungriest people, according to a report by Fairtrade International.

The Fairtrade model, operating now in 70 countries with 1.5 million small farmers, aims to transform the imbalance by making sure farmers get a livable income.

Fairtrade products are audited throughout the supply chain. All farmers receive a guaranteed minimum price for their crops, based on the actual cost of production, so that when global market prices wobble, the farmers still have a sustainable livelihood.

It's a multi-layered system, emphasising not just economics but community ethics. All Fairtrade farmers receive an additional premium that goes into a community fund. The producers themselves must decide how to spend the shared funds - for example, on water supplies, health facilities, or shared processing equipment for their crops. And there are rules: those spending decisions must be made democratically, and women must be allowed an equal vote. Thus, the trading network becomes an engine for community-driven development.

"A trading system like this can have an influence on so many aspects of sustainability," Olson says. "It is in every way a transformative system."

Some of the biggest growth for Fairtrade production now is happening in New Zealand's own backyard: Asia and the Pacific.

"New Zealanders can have an enormous impact on sustainable livelihoods in the Pacific," says Olson.

The government agrees. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is currently funding the work of Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand in the Pacific. With $4.5 million in government funds dedicated over a ***five-year period*** (2012-2017), the project targets growers of coffee, cocoa, vanilla, coconuts and sugar in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa. Over 20,000 farmers have received assistance, which includes training in community governance and linkages to international buyers.

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