Beating poverty

George Alagiah has been reporting on conflict for the past 20 years, which is why he gets what he describes as a real 'fillip' from being able to tell people that 'things are working' for a change. 'There are a million little victories out there in a million places,' he declares. So, what's he talking about? The Fairtrade Foundation's success in securing a better deal for marginalised and disadvantaged producers in the Third World.

Best known for his 14 years as one of the BBC's top journalists, George is currently co-presenting BBC1's Six O'clock News five days a week. His daily routine might be a far cry from the time he spent reporting from the world's most violent hotspots (think Somalia, Rwanda, Iraq, Afghanistan), but the experience has inevitably marked him. It is what prompted him to become the Fairtrade Foundation's Patron in 2001.

'I'd got fed up simply with reporting problems and not finding solutions,' he explains. 'During 20 years reporting on the developing world, I've watched many different attempts to deal with poverty and the conflict that it spawns, British people are incredibly generous, but emergency appeals only address the symptoms. Fairtrade puts money directly into the hands of the producers and that's the best guarantee against conflict. A world in which people are fairly compensated for what they do, and have a stake in something, is a safer world. If they have nothing and no hope of getting anything, they are more likely to be tempted into violence.'

So where does the Fairtrade Foundation - which celebrates its tenth birthday this year - fit into all this? It encourages UK industries and consumers to support fairer trade by buying products that carry the FAIRTRADE Mark. The Mark is awarded to products sourced from the developing world that meet internationally recognised standards of fair trade.

In the global market, daily fluctuations in commodity prices can have a catastrophic effect on millions of small-scale growers of everyday supermarket staples such as coffee, tea, cocoa and bananas. Many producers are forced to sell their goods at less than the cost of production to middlemen, and fall into crippling debt. By assuring registered farmers a consistent and fair price that covers the cost of sustainable production and living (plus a premium), the Fairtrade Foundation enables them to strengthen their organisation and invest in social, environmental and business improvements.

Just as importantly, they are able to plan ahead and can therefore take control of their lives. Visiting a Fairtrade-certified co-operative in Sri Lanka, George recalls that the thing that struck him most forcefully wasn't the farmers' profitable ledgers - which they were understandably keen to show him - but their confidence. 'You could feel it in the strength of their handshakes and see it in the eye contact they made. That was far more important to me than their ledgers.'

The retail value of Fairtrade sales in the UK has grown from £16.7m in 1998 to £63m in 2002, with a 91 per cent growth between 2000 and 2002. As a result, at least 500,000 farmers and workers throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia have benefited from the better deal that the Mark guarantees.

Waitrose is just one of the supermarkets that stocks a selection of the 180-strong range of products now available. Coffee and bananas are the top sellers, with an astounding 1.5m bananas bought each week in 2002. Products are also offered by 46 catering suppliers.

George is delighted at the progress made, but admits that he'll only be satisfied when 'all trade everywhere is Fairtrade'. In the meantime, what he terms the ongoing 'consumer revolution' excites him. 'The days when the rich and the poor world was symbolised by us with a charity box and them with a begging bowl are over,' he asserts. 'People will no longer simply give money and forget about it. When it comes to food, they want to know what they're buying and how it's produced.'

He argues that supermarket leaders (including those on the selling floor) and consumers 'need to ask themselves what sort of world they want to live in. One that is patently unfair and where there is a lot of anger, or one where Third World producers are fairly compensated for their work.' However, he stresses that buying Fairtrade is definitely not about martyring yourself by 'drinking inferior-tasting coffee or eating rotten bananas'.

'We want Fairtrade products to be judged on their quality. Look at the range of coffees you can buy; you can choose one that suits your palate, and often the difference in price equates to only one penny more a cup. One of our slogans is 'A taste for life' and we assure that quality by being absolutely rigorous in our standards.'

As well as guaranteeing quality, the FAIRTRADE Mark is also the most transparent assurance consumers have that a product really has been fairly traded. 'The Mark allows consumers to make an informed judgement when they shop. I can't get to Peru or Ghana to check whether a product is Fairtrade; the Mark shows that someone has done that for me.'

Work is ongoing to expand the Fairtrade range to include more fresh fruit, rice and even cotton. 'If we want to offer a real alternative and be more than something that is bought by the chattering classes in Islington, Edinburgh and Cheshire, we have to give the consumer more products. But we also have to find the right farmers out there and be sure of the quality. We must have the capacity to expand the range honestly and that's why we're talking to businesses such as Waitrose.'

Strengthening the Fairtrade 'brand' - while safeguarding its integrity - is a key part of the plan, but there can be no clearer illustration of where George's and the Foundation's hearts lie than the point made by a South American farmer at a recent meeting of FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International), the movement's umbrella certification body.

The farmer stood up and declared: 'We are more than a brand: we are a people.' George couldn't agree more, and promised: 'I won't let Fairtrade become just another brand. We are absolutely about people.'

You can't say fairer than that.

© The Gazette, the magazine of the John Lewis Partnership. This article first appeared in The Gazette on 10th January 2004. Reproduced by kind permission from The Gazette.