Co-op News October 2019: Sustainable Development

MEET...
Meet … Michael Gidney,
CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation
As the UK-based Fairtrade Foundation celebrates 25 years of the Fairtrade Mark,
we speak with CEO Michael Gidney about what the future looks like – and how
Fairtrade can weather the changes being seen across the grocery sector.
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN FAIRTRADE?
Around the time Fairtrade launched in the UK,
I was living and working as a teacher in Kenya and
I saw at first hand the enterprise, creativity and
dynamism in local markets which was a million
miles away from the way Africa was described in
the British media. Certainly aid played a vital role
– as it still does today – but there was so much
untapped potential to fight poverty through trade.
I’ve been working in international development
ever since, with roles at VSO and others, often with
a focus on small-scale enterprise development.
I joined Traidcraft in 2001 – they’re a founding
pioneer of the movement and among the first to sell
Fairtrade products. I’ve been CEO at the Fairtrade
Foundation since 2012.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST IMPACTS
OF FAIRTRADE?
Fairtrade is a movement, bringing millions
of people in the UK closer to the millions of men
and women in developing countries who grow and
make the things we buy. That movement has created
a revolution in the way food is traded – consumers
have shown they really care about provenance,
about where products come from and who made
them. And smart companies have responded.
We have gone from just four Fairtrade products to
5,000, but that would not have happened without
sustained campaigning from the public and
I am incredibly proud of all that our supporters
have achieved.
People across the UK have really taken Fairtrade
to their hearts, perhaps because fairness is a value
that resonates with British identity – most people
wholeheartedly agree with the concepts of a ‘fair
price’ and a ‘fair wage’ for those who produce
No one wants their
coffee to come at the
price of exploitation
our food. This is all the more important when the
people behind our food, clothes, jewellery and
other goods remain exploited by trade. Fairtrade’s
response to that is to rebalance power and price:
through Fairtrade farmers and workers get a better
deal and have more power over their trade. This
helps ensure they are better equipped to tackle
the immense challenges they face – they are
more likely to be able to have enough food year
round, to have a better income, to be organised
and to have a voice. Every Fairtrade purchase
matters, not only because it delivers real impact for
producers, but also it sends a signal to business,
to government and society that the people behind
our goods matter.
WHAT IS THE CO-OPERATIVE CONNECTION?
Fairtrade is all about co-operation. Around the
world there are approximately 1,600 certified
Fairtrade producer organisations – the majority of
which are co-operatives, with membership ranging
in size from a couple of hundred to upwards of
100,000. Together with a smaller number of workers
on plantations, there are now 1.6 million producers
involved in Fairtrade across Latin America, Africa
and Asia.
A cornerstone of the co-operative movement
is the partnership between producers and
consumers and this is also a founding principle of
Fairtrade. In the UK, members of co-operatives are
among Fairtrade’s strongest supporters, actively
campaigning for trade justice and regularly
tabling motions at their AGMs for more Fairtrade
products to be available in stores. This has created
a mandate on which organisations such as the
22 | OCTOBER 2019