Farmers to benefit from ‘fair trade’

LONDON – Shoppers in Britain could soon be checking a new label when buying a pair of cotton trousers – the ‘fair trade’ mark.

The Fairtrade Foundation was to announce later yesterday the launch in Britain of cotton fair-trade products that will guarantee cotton farmers in developing countries a just price. The launch, backed by Britain’s Labour government, comes ahead of a WTO meeting in Hong Kong next month that seeks to tear down international trade barriers.”I will finally be able to support my family thanks to the fair trade price we will get for our cotton,” Laljibhai Narranbhai, a cotton farmer from Agrocel Pure and Fair Cotton Growers’ Association in India, said ahead of the launch.Britons are already cottoning on to fair-trade products, including coffee and chocolate.Last year saw a 51-per cent rise in sales of fair-trade goods here, according to the Fairtrade Foundation – an independent certification body that awards a mark to products that meet international standards.Consumers in Britain spent more than 140 million pounds on goods bearing the fair-trade brand in 2004 compared with 92 million pounds a year earlier.The Fairtrade Foundation said the launch would focus “on the urgent need for fair trade cotton in the context of low world cotton prices, depressed in part by US and EU subsidies”.Cotton products carrying the fair-trade mark would shortly be available from 10 companies who trade via a range of independent shops, websites and catalogues throughout Britain.Items with the mark would include women’s and men’s T-shirts, shirts, trousers, dresses, children’s and babies’ wear, underwear and cotton wool.”For too long cotton farmers have been invisible at the end of long supply chains and at the sharp end of injustice in international trade, and that has to change,” Harriet Lamb, director of the Fairtrade Foundation, was to say at the launch.”Today we are setting a whole new pattern for international trade.”The newly certified fair-trade cotton would initially come from small farmers in India and Peru, Mali and Senegal.Farmers there would receive the guaranteed fair trade minimum price plus a premium to use in social or business development projects.Goods using fair-trade-certified cotton made in Africa have been launched already in France, Switzerland, and Belgium.-Nampa-AFPThe launch, backed by Britain’s Labour government, comes ahead of a WTO meeting in Hong Kong next month that seeks to tear down international trade barriers.”I will finally be able to support my family thanks to the fair trade price we will get for our cotton,” Laljibhai Narranbhai, a cotton farmer from Agrocel Pure and Fair Cotton Growers’ Association in India, said ahead of the launch.Britons are already cottoning on to fair-trade products, including coffee and chocolate.Last year saw a 51-per cent rise in sales of fair-trade goods here, according to the Fairtrade Foundation – an independent certification body that awards a mark to products that meet international standards.Consumers in Britain spent more than 140 million pounds on goods bearing the fair-trade brand in 2004 compared with 92 million pounds a year earlier.The Fairtrade Foundation said the launch would focus “on the urgent need for fair trade cotton in the context of low world cotton prices, depressed in part by US and EU subsidies”.Cotton products carrying the fair-trade mark would shortly be available from 10 companies who trade via a range of independent shops, websites and catalogues throughout Britain.Items with the mark would include women’s and men’s T-shirts, shirts, trousers, dresses, children’s and babies’ wear, underwear and cotton wool.”For too long cotton farmers have been invisible at the end of long supply chains and at the sharp end of injustice in international trade, and that has to change,” Harriet Lamb, director of the Fairtrade Foundation, was to say at the launch.”Today we are setting a whole new pattern for international trade.”The newly certified fair-trade cotton would initially come from small farmers in India and Peru, Mali and Senegal.Farmers there would receive the guaranteed fair trade minimum price plus a premium to use in social or business development projects.Goods using fair-trade-certified cotton made in Africa have been launched already in France, Switzerland, and Belgium.-Nampa-AFP