What is fair trade?

Fair trade seeks to transform the lives of poor producers in the developing world by enabling them to use their skills and resources to trade their way out of poverty.

It seeks to challenge injustices in trading structures and practices that so often lead to the exploitation and marginalisation of poor people.

Key elements of fair trade

Fair trade sets out to:

• create opportunities for poor producers
• ensure trading practices are fair, both in terms of payment and prices
• ensure that children are not being exploited
• ensure there is no discrimination
• ensure working conditions are safe.

Sales of fair trade products have been gaining momentum in the UK in recent years, and they are now more widely available than ever before. Figures released by the Fairtrade Foundation show that sales of Marked products are worth £500m per year.

Traidcraft at St Mary’s Church

Whilst we cannot claim anything like this volume of sales, we run a Traidcraft stall every Sunday after the Parish Eucharist enabling members of the congregation to buy goods and to order special items from the catalogue. We also encourage all users of our facilities to use fair trade produce and items (where available) in their catering and refreshments. We also promote these issues to our congregation and local community helping them to make informed decisions about their buying power and consumer influence when they shop.

All of these ways, we hope, will help to play our part in striving towards a just and fair society where people are allowed to get a fair price for the work they do and the goods they produce.