Fairtrade in the MainstreamKatie
Stafford
Fairtrade in context Commitment to being a Fair Partner
First tier suppliers - good labour standards
UK farmers – milk and lamb pledge
Communities – Marks & Start
Small Suppliers – Shell Foundation and
Traidcraft
Commodity Farmers - Fairtrade
Fairtrade – the M&S story
June 2005 – all tea and coffee in Café
Revive
Jan 2006 – Fairtrade cotton introduced
March 2006 – 100% tea and coffee Fairtrade
Jan 2007 – biggest ever Fairtrade cotton buy
Feb 2007 - all jams using Fairtrade sugar
Sept 2007 – biggest T-shirt line in store
Fairtrade cotton
Why Fairtrade?Why not? Why?
Own brand! ------------> Customer Trust
Can do ourselves? -----------> Small farmers
meeting min std NOT same!
Not that fair anyway? ---------> Fairtrade good baseline
Still more we can do over
and above Fairtrade rules
Support change from within
Case studies……scale and commitment
Cotton in India - Agrocel Farmer development organisation – supplying
inputs, training, contracts to buy
Started to supply cotton to M&S in 2004 - via
spinners (Maral)
Good understanding of farmer needs, costs etc
M&S – Shell Foundation link up to help
improve quality and business skills - improve
customer relationships, building stocks, links to
spinners etc
M&S make first forward contract for cotton
Growing business – M&S offer £600k pre-
finance agreement to fund Fairtrade premium and
input costs – allows for further growth
Win-win – quality cotton, good price to farmers,
near to spinning mills, good environmental
practice, pre-finance SAVES money
Cotton from West Africa
Cotton Trade in W Africa
dominated by traders
Commitment to 2000 tonnes
from West Africa via COPACO (major
french trader)
Relationships at trader level…
+’ve logistics, volume, language
-‘ve information flows to farmers (price, quality, volumes, impacts)
Tea and coffee Good knowledge of existing
sources and standards
Gap assessments for whole
supply base
100% conversion within 6
months – partnership with FLO
and FTF
Customers responded well
Scale and authority = Brand
not choice
Making Fairtrade part of what we stand for…..
LESSONS – taking it to scale Good for brand – shows commitment not just
choice
Don’t profiteer – M&S firm commitment to no
higher margins
Good for impact on farmers – number of farmers
and also interactions with business
Vital that we all work towards sustainable
business relationships – don’t just leave it to NGOs
and commodity traders
Think supply chain – cotton in developing countries
– not just farmers who need better trade
CHALLENGES
Producer support – technical assistance AND
business development
Quality/availability/location – many costs in
Fairtrade cotton supply chain are to ‘non-farmer’ issues
Fairtrade and FLO – need support to catch up with
the pace of change
Commodities - used mainly as ingredients not single
products, limiting growth
Impacts – what impact is Fairtrade having? is all
Fairtrade equal?
Thanks for listening!!Questions……
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