Environment
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- ⁄ The fairtrade guarantee
What the Fairtrade mark guarantees
1. Small-scale farmers get a fair and stable price so they can support their families.
Millions of small-scale farmers depend on selling their crops to survive. When prices drop it can spell disaster for them. If they earn less than it costs to run the farm, they face real hardship – struggling to buy food or keep their children in school. Ultimately they may lose their land and their livelihood.
2. An extra “premium” payment for community projects such as clean water, health care, local credit and schooling.
Sugar cane growers in Malawi have used the premium to drill bore-holes for clean water. Women and children no longer have to collect water from the crocodile-infested River Shire. A coffee co-operative in Guatemala has used the premium to establish healthcare centres and pharmacies to meet the needs of local farmers and their families.
3. Greater respect for the environment.
By cutting weeds instead of using herbicides, 1,900 organic coffee farmers in Sumatra, Indonesia are helping to protect local endangered species. A group of 133 banana farmers in Colombia have set up an environmental protection programme that includes reforestation, a community rubbish collection service and a plastic waste-recycling programme.
4. Closer link between shoppers and producers
Fairtrade encourages more direct trading relationships so that producers get a bigger share of the export price.
5. A stronger position in world markets for farmers
For the last six years coffee prices have remained below the cost of production, causing immense hardship for millions of farmers. In 2001, prices plummeted to just 45 US cents per lb. By selling just a small amount of their coffee at the guaranteed and stable Fairtrade price of US$1.26 per lb, members of Kilimanjaro Native Co-operative Union (KNCU) in Tanzania have been able to stay afloat during the crisis.
