6 Fairtrade Swaps for Event Venues & Vendors
Have you ever thought about the role of Fairtrade practices in the events industry?
While many earth-kind practices start by sourcing locally, there are a number of items that simply need to be imported from all around the world! This is where choosing Fairtrade products can have a huge impact on communities and the planet.
A Fairtrade Breakfast - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
What is Fairtrade and How Does it Make a Difference?
Fairtrade Canada explains that Fairtrade is about far more than just fair prices. Their mission is to create sustainable impact in three interconnected areas: economic, social, and environmental.
💵 Economic Impact
Small-scale farmers and workers earn sustainable and secure incomes, thanks to the Minimum Price for most commodities. As well as being less vulnerable to market uncertainty, better security means investments can be made to improve product quality and productivity.
🧡 Social Impact
Cooperatives give farmers more power and a stronger voice, child labour and gender discrimination are prohibited, and workers’ rights are protected. Workers on larger farms are protected by Fairtrade Standards, which ensure better working conditions, health and safety measures and the right to unionise.
The Fairtrade Premium is not only invested in businesses, but also in projects that benefit entire communities, like schools, health centres, and housing.
🌎 Environmental Impact
Natural resources, like water and soil, are carefully managed and the use of harmful chemicals is restricted. Fairtrade favours organic farming, which also gives farmers financial benefits and access to new markets. Climate change is taken seriously and farmers are supported in adapting to a changing environment, with access to financing, support, and expertise. The Fairtrade Carbon Credits program has also been set up to enable producers to make their contribution to climate change mitigation while adapting to new realities.
Learn more about the Fairtrade mandate and the key issues their work is focussed on: https://fairtrade.ca/what-is-fairtrade/the-impact-of-our-work/
Fairtrade Supports Communities Around the World - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
What Can I Do To Support Fairtrade Businesses & Communities?
It’s quite simple really! Event professionals, especially venues and caterers, can increase positive impact by sourcing Fairtrade goods. Below we’ve listed some Fairtrade swaps for products that are essential in the events and hospitality sector.
Buying Fairtrade Products in Canada - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
6 Fairtrade Swaps to Make Right Away
☕ Coffee & Tea
By choosing Fairtrade coffee you’ll support more than 750,000 coffee farmers to thrive in an unstable market by earning a decent income, protecting their local environment, and investing in their farms and communities.
Fairtrade tea empowers hundreds of thousands of farmers and workers in east Africa and southeast Asia. Small-scale tea farmers invest most of their Premium funds in farm and facility improvements, while workers on larger estates choose to provide direct services to themselves and their families, such as education and healthcare.
Fairtrade Coffee Farmer - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
🛏️ Cotton Bedding & Towels
Government subsidies keep the world price of cotton artificially low. Fairtrade works with cooperatives of small-scale farmers so that they can earn sustainable incomes. Fairtrade Standards also encourage more traditional farming practices, focusing on organic production with less use of harsh chemicals and vast amounts of water.
Fairtrade Cotton Farm - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
🍌 Fresh Fruit & Vegetables
Big retailers competing to offer the lowest prices means the price of bananas in Canada keeps dropping. For farmers and workers, this means that growing bananas for a living is becoming unsustainable. Fairtrade sets a Minimum Price for bananas, which aims to cover the costs of sustainable production and acts as a safety net when the market falls below that.
Fairtrade and banana farming - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
🍫 Sugar, Chocolate & Cocoa
Despite its sweet taste, sugar has a hidden, unsavoury reality of a highly competitive industry that leaves small-scale farmers vulnerable to market pressures. Fairtrade works with small-scale sugar cane farmers to expand their access to global markets and find new opportunities for sales.
Chocolate is one of the world’s favourite sweet treats, and a must-have for special occasions, but growing cocoa is challenging and the conditions that cocoa farmers face would leave you with a bitter taste. Fairtrade ensures that cocoa farmers receive a fair and stable payment despite market fluctuation and added funds to invest in business and community projects.
Fairtrade Cocoa Farming - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
💐 Fresh Flowers
While millions of cut flowers sold in Canada are grown in domestic greenhouses, many imported flowers like roses are used in bouquets to help celebrate special occasions like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. When you choose Fairtrade flowers, tens of thousands of flower workers benefit from higher pay and better working conditions.
Fairtrade Rose Farm in Kenya - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
🍳 Oil, Spices & Many Cooking Essentials
Nuts and oils are often challenging products to grow, especially with climate change, as farmers rely on small and seasonal harvests from farmed or wild plants or trees. By offering stable prices and a viable outlet for their product, Fairtrade can make a difference to farmers and workers through better incomes, safer working conditions, and protection of natural lands, forests and biodiversity.
Two companies dominate the global spice and herb market, meaning that small-scale farmers have limited options for selling their products. Prices have been forced downwards in recent years, so incomes and living conditions have deteriorated, but Fairtrade certifies a wide range of herbs and spices, with some having a set Minimum Price and all receiving a Fairtrade Premium.
Fairtrade Product Mix - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
What Do I Need to Look for When Sourcing Fairtrade products?
The FAIRTRADE Mark is the symbol of the international Fairtrade system – and the most globally recognized independent ethical certification logo. There are a few different marks related to different products, but they still meet the same rigorous standards.
Fairtrade logo on a coffee cup - Image Source Fairtrade Canada
My Business Makes Products With These Ingredients. How Can I Go Fairtrade?
There is a wealth of information on the Fairtrade Canada website! Check it out and good luck on your Fairtrade endeavour! We’d love to hear how it goes.
Are you interested in learning more about Fairtrade movements in Canada? Visit their website and look out for the iconic symbol when sourcing new products
