Fair Trade and Fairtrade - what is the progress on Fairtrade?

Dr Mark Hayes

Westminster diocese's annual Fairtrade event last Friday was an opportunity to count up the number of diocesan Fairtrade parishes - 89, to update ourselves on Fairtrade statistics, and also to watch the latest Fairtrade tea project in Malawi. This village is currently suffering severe damage due to flooding and we saw how precarious the livelihoods of tea producers can be.

The main speaker of the evening, Dr Mark Hayes, of the Department of Catholic Studies at Durham University, gave a stimulating talk. He pointed out that Fairtrade is not charity but justice. Buying from stalls after Mass is not the same as buying at a jumble sale. We are buying in a fair market.

He explained also that the Fairtrade label might not apply to all the stages of delivery, but mass production sometimes means there has to be a trade off so that the producer gets a few more pence per kilo of the product, and that more goods reach a wider market.

There still need to be efforts to strive for justice at all stages of production. He referred back to the SOAS study criticising Fairtrade in East Africa, saying there is always room for improvement, but that does not mean that the small farmer should be absorbed into a large state managed agricultural system.

Attended by around 40 people from around the diocese, the evening gave new impetus to the diocesan campaign.

His talk is available on his website: http://community.dur.ac.uk/m.g.hayes/MGH270215.mp3