A few days ago I met Julio Mercado Cantillo, a banana farmer from Colombia. He had arrived in the UK for Fairtrade Fortnight. This year Fairtrade Fortnight puts the spotlight on the fact that millions of farmers in developing countries who produce everyday foods for UK consumers themselves suffer long periods of hunger. Periods of food insecurity are so predictable for some farmers that they’ve acquired poignant names such as chulga (food suffering) in Ethiopia or los meses flacos (the thin months) in Nicaragua.
Julio has experienced this first hand. “Before Fairtrade, there were days we only had one meal a day,” he explained. He described being at the mercy of traders who kept lowering their price for the bananas he worked hard to grow, until the price sank to poverty levels. It was an unpredictable time for the family. He and his fellow growers struggled with the labour of banana farming because they were not eating properly.
There are millions of farmers like Julio, whose livelihood depends on the income from selling their produce to you and me. When prices for their crop are poor, their ability to feed their family and pay for other essentials is undermined. The scale of the problem is startling. Two-thirds of cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast (the source for much of the UK’s cocoa) experience hunger during July and August, just ahead of the harvest. Coffee farmers in three central American countries are food insecure for one quarter of the year. And in Malawi - currently experiencing a severe food crisis - 50% of children in tea growing areas are undernourished. It is not right that farmers are going hungry because they’re not paid a fair price for the food they grow.
There is another important reason to address this problem now. The UK has recently signed up to the new UN Global Goals. One of the ways these goals aim to end poverty is by encouraging more farmers to grow crops for export. But Julio’s experience is that you can be selling into a multi-million pound global market and be trapped in poverty. So what is the answer? Put simply, we have to make trade work for farmers. And this means getting serious about the prices which are paid and a commitment to trading in a fair way.
Julio told me his life has changed since he started farming under Fairtrade terms. In addition to receiving better and more stable prices, he has also received training. He has bought farm animals because of the extra price, which provide meat as well as an additional income. For the first time some farmers in his co-operative can send their children to university. It’s a common story. A recent study found that the vast majority of banana farmers in Colombia believe they are better off since joining Fairtrade, with an average 34% increase in income.
These impressive results have come about because of a high level of support from businesses and consumers for Fairtrade bananas. In addition to the safety net of a minimum price which aims to cover the cost of production if the market crashes, Fairtrade farmer groups receive an additional Premium to invest in their businesses and in social and environmental projects, according to their own priorities. Our monitoring and evaluation research shows that many Fairtrade-certified farmers enjoy more stable incomes and improved standards of living. Research also shows that Fairtrade schemes that help people to save for the future, invest into improving the productivity of their crops and diversify their crops - such as by growing vegetables or rearing animals - can help reduce vulnerability during lean times.
While Fairtrade can help, we can’t do it alone. We need to see existing commitments from business to high ethical standards maintained and extended. And, as the UK government begins to implement the Global Goals, it has the crucial role of setting policies which promote the right kind of trade and investment in agriculture around the world. Whether through the UK Department for International Development (DFID) aid programme, or through policies on trade and business, there are many opportunities to change things for the better.
And, of course, support from the public is essential, to show both businesses and governments that we want to see change. Throughout Fairtrade Fortnight thousands of people across the UK are standing up for farmers - by sitting down for Fairtrade breakfasts! It’s a simple way to make the point that the struggle for a fairer way of trade is far from over. While there are farmers and workers growing our food who aren’t able to feed their families properly, the job is not done.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
