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crafts to tap into that. There is a social consciousness coming to the consumers and Fair Trade has a
story to tell. And stories sell crafts.
The potential for us targeting this market is beginning to become bigger and bigger and bigger. Fair
Trade labelling for handicrafts is also critical. So far there is no handicrafts product that is labelled as
Fair Trade in the market yet a lot of the growth in Fair Trade has come because there is a label on the
product; on these bananas there is a Max Havelaar label that defines the product as Fairtrade to the
consumer. How do we get a label on the handicraft products and begin to identify ourselves in the
market?
The power to scale up, through clustering of producers and through the use of small-scale technology
to expand production offers a lot of potential. A lot of our producers are small scale, but a lot of them
could be clustered together to produce large quantities. For example, where I come from in Kenya, we
have one product – that is the kisii soapstone – and it is unique to Kenya. What we can do is say to the
producers, this is the product we need to make, we need to make 1 million pieces of this, and that
can then be coordinated to help the producers step into larger and broader markets.
If you look at the size of the market, currently the EU has annually about 6 billion Euros in gifts and
living sales. The contribution for Fair Trade in this market is negligible; almost non existent. It cannot
even be calculated. Imagine if Africa got just 5% or 7% or 10% per cent of that market every year, going
back to the small-scale producers. Imagine what a difference that would be. In the U.S. the market is
much larger. The question is: what is the size of the market for Africa? How do we take that and turn it
into something much, much bigger? We have had some success stories of producers mainstreaming.
A producer called Made in Kenya has been selling for a long time in the mainstream in the UK; Gahaya
Links in Rwanda is selling to Macy’s in the U.S. in larger and larger quantities; Pure Swazi, which is a
brand of Swaziland producers that has come together to consolidate, does orders of over 20,000. The
potential to scale up does exist. It is just a matter of the producers to become better, and working to
label the products and then ensuring that they are able to get into the market.
Fair Trade has a role. We have a responsibility to develop clear Fair Trade standards and labelling for
handicrafts, to support producers through capacity building, to work to scale up production to be able
to meet larger and larger orders and lastly to share the story of Fair Trade handicrafts through consumer
awareness and effective market linkages. We have a role to support Fair Trade handicrafts to grow along
side Fair Trade food products.
Fair Trade networks are also equally important. The power of networks cannot be ignored. Networks
such as COFTA have a very strong role to provide linkages to the hundreds and thousands of Fair
Trade handicrafts producers who exists in Africa. COFTA has been working to grow Fair Trade handi -
crafts though producer support and strengthening programs across Africa, through collective learning
and collaboration and through marketing access support and other linkages. COFTA is working
towards getting a piece of that mainstream gifts and living market for African Fair Trade handicrafts
producers.
THE GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVE
BEYOND FAIRTRADE!
Jan Pronk, former Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM),
Minister of Development Cooperation, vice-chairman of UNCTAD, the Un organisation on Trade Aid
and Development
If we really want to achieve fair trade, just buying Fairtrade products is not enough. This was the principal
message contained in the passionate speech given by Jan Pronk, during the Max Havelaar Lecture
2010, which was held yesterday at Erasmus University. This short journalistic account gives a
summary of key point of the lecture. For the whole speech, visit the website:
www.maxhavelaarlecture.org
Beyond Fairtrade
The power of the consumer extends far beyond the purchase of Fairtrade products. The consumer
must use this far-reaching power to also effect large-scale change. In order to reduce the economic
differences between the West and the Third World the consumer should in fact adopt a more sustainable
way of life, which encompasses more than just buying Fairtrade products. In particular, it means the
consumer must be consistent in his refusal to purchase certain products.
Say No to overfishing
To give an example: fish stocks on the West African coast have been overexploited for years by large,
illegal fishing boats. Some of these, according to a Greenpeace blacklist, are European trawlers sailing
under Italian or Portuguese flag. These practices have a huge negative impact on small-scale African
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