The Fairtrade Label South Africa (FLSA) is set to hold the first Fairtrade Week around the country. The campaign is aimed at raising public awareness about Fairtrade products and processes. The Fairtrade Week slogan is: “Taste the Change”, and is designed to encourage consumers to learn about the potential of fair trading: the significance it plays in improving lives in farming communities and in offering consumers an ethical choice.
FLSA executive director Boudewijn Goossens explains: “I am confident in the ethical consciousness of South African consumers. I have no doubt that they will be excited in tasting the positive changes brought about by Fairtrade in our country simply by choosing Fairtrade certified products in their everyday shopping. Fairtrade Week is going to be a major milestone for increasing Fairtrade brand awareness in South Africa.”
The campaign starts off with the introduction of Kraft Foods’ Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk bars into retail stores, with an official product launch at Pick n Pay on Nicol in Johannesburg on 15 November. It will end with a cocktail at the soon to be opened Bean There coffee Roastery in Cape Town on 18 November 2011.
At the heart of Fairtrade Week are seven inspiring “change stories”, including:
Fairtrade standards aim to tackle poverty and empower farming communities by ensuring better working and living conditions and providing them with additional income, the Fairtrade Premium, to invest in education, training and improvement of local infrastructure. In addition, Fairtrade certified farms have to implement environmentally friendly practices in order to ensure production is sustainable.
There are currently over 230 Fairtrade certified producer organisations in Africa, over 60 of them in South Africa. Fairtrade sales in South Africa reached R18.4-million in 2010, up from R5.7-million in 2009.
Fairtrade Label South Africa (FLSA) is the local marketing organisation for Fairtrade and aims to alleviate rural poverty and to empower small-scale farmers and disadvantaged workers primarily in Africa by creating market opportunities for and increasing sales of Fairtrade labelled products in South Africa.
For more information, go to www.FairtradeSA.org.za.
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