Buying a gift? Fair trade products allow you to gift twice!

 

 

stringing colourful beads together, following patterns and designs provided by professionals, the ladies before me were making accessories which would be worn by fashionistas in the West. Assured of steady and fair wages and of a home-like environment, these ladies were the beneficiaries of a movement that’s spreading in the west like a wild fire. “Do they even understand the term ‘fair trade’, the raison d’etre for their organisation, CFM?” I quizzed the manager of this community in Noida, Anil. Perhaps smiling at my naivety, he replied, “They don’t understand the term but they do understand their rights.” Supermarkets in Europe and US are teeming with Fair Trade products – coffee, tea, chocolates, bananas, beverages, desserts, t-shirts–sold through partnering organisations as diverse as large retail chains to small social enterprises. And ordinary Joe’s like you and me are making the right choices and enabling workers from Latin America to Asia get a fair deal for their sweat and labour.

Earlier, at the office of the Community Friendly Movement (CFM), an NGO working for creating wealth for the artisans who had so far been denied their rights to fair wages and subjected to ungodly working conditions, I conversed with Saurav Kumar Ghosh, the Co-founder and Chairman of CFM, and hoped that he wouldn’t notice my eyes darting off to the trinkets lining the room. “We make sure they’re (the workers) paid on time, a clean hygienic environment is provided to them and there’s no child labour. But go to areas like Moradabad and you’ll find children involved in the process of casting. They work for hours in those furnaces!” exclaimed Saurav. And to think, by merely shopping for the right brands, I can help kids in my nation enjoy their childhood! Buoyed by the thoughts in my head I inched towards the trinkets and Saurav began to give me a detailed tour of CFM’s products. From silk scarves that I was told had been made by weavers in Bhagalpur to the traditional jootis of Jodhpur, the tour made me itch towards my wallet. “The products look good and you would want to keep them in your home… Just because your products are ethically sound doesn’t automatically translate into sales until you also ensure your products are good.” clarified Saurav. Earlier this year, in England, as I indulged in my favourite hobby (no prizes for guessing this one) – shopping – I was confronted with numerous options of helping the farmers and poor communities of the developing nations – from the sinfully delicious Divine chocolates that benefited cocoa growers in Ghana, to the fair trade clothing range in Marks and Spencers, to bunches of roses at the Waitrose supermarket that spread the cheer to the rose farmers in Kenya – I realised I could splurge and feel like a saint at the same time! The International Fairtrade Certification Mark, which can now be seen pasted on fair trade products in over 50 countries, guided me along the shopping aisles. “Ethical leadership is going to become a key aspect for brand differentiation for companies. In UK there are about 3000 fair trade products, where five years ago there were only 100!” said Paul Chandler, CEO, Traidcraft, in an exclusive interview. Operating since 1979, Traidcraft has been dedicated to ‘fighting poverty through trade’ and now offers a range of products sourced from over 30 nations. “If you look at the governments and societies, they all have imposed certain constraints on businesses, such as on issues like child labour, environmental minimum standards, and then businesses have done the maximum that they could within those constraints. The fair trade movement is trying to create a wider set of values and constraints within which business needs to work in the future,” continued Paul.

Where in the beginning, handicrafts were at the core of the fair trade movement, now the market has significantly widened. Bananas, for instance, at Sainsbury and Waitrose are 100% fair trade and as 1000 of them are sold every minute at Sainsbury, growers in the Caribbean and Central and South America are finally receiving their fair due. Slightly sore at having no gentleman around to help the Kenyan rose farmers out, I stood in the queue for Ben & Jerry’s and the memory of a scene from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, came to my mind, where Jones helped herself to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and remarked that she’s in a relationship with two men – “the first named Ben, the other Jerry”! Thankfully a situation I couldn’t relate to completely, I still helped myself to some fair-trade ice-cream, all for the good of farmers in India and Paraguay! Mel Young, Managing Director and Founder of New Consumer (a ‘socially aware’ magazine), says, “In UK, the awareness of fair trade products has increased and consumers are actually making choices between what they buy in shops – like between regular coffee and fair trade coffee for example. Fair trade is basically a way of engaging people – many people tried big demonstrations and tired to persuade the government but nothing happened. Now consumers understand that they can exercise their power by simply buying products.”

Paul Chandler made a rather poignant point when he said, “One of the things we’re (Traidcraft) conscious of, is that for a small producers group to completely depend on export is not the best scenario. With all sorts of currency and trade negotiation risks, it can get very tough and very risky.” And indeed the need for local markets to supplement the workers’ income is crucial. Where there are stores like Anokhi and People Tree in the trendy markets of our country and CFM too is joining them at Delhi’s Hauz Khas market, it’s but the tip of the iceberg for the potential market of fair trade items in India. Back at CFM’s office Saurav explained, “If tomorrow Reliance says we’ll trade only in fair trade goods or if Amitabh Bachchan comes out in support for the movement, only then a market for fair trade products would really develop in India.”

So all of you who have stopped the ladies from doing what they enjoy the most (still no prizes!) – shopping – there’s still time for you to mend your ways. For not only will it lift her mood, it will also help more workers around the world to understand and enjoy their rights, like the women I had met in Noida. And in case you’re wondering, I did shop at the CFM office too, and I confess, it wasn’t completely thanks to my charitable nature either