Fairer Future

I can't believe it's Fairtrade Fortnight again. It's the time of year when we can celebrate those products which guarantee a fair price to farmers. I still find it hard to remember that lots of the products I buy might not be giving a fair price to the whole production chain. 

Trying to buy local produce seems to have limited my Fairtrade purchases recently. I haven't bought bananas in a while, and trying to eat more healthily means cutting back on chocolate, although if I do buy it I almost always buy Fairtrade. There are some foods which I always buy Fairtrade and others that I only just realised Fairtrade was an option. Hot chocolate, bananas and coffee will always be Fairtrade in my basket but today I saw my first Fairtrade lime. If I'm buying a product that can't be local then I'd much rather it was Fairtrade.


Tea I find trickier. We had some lovely Christmas presents this year from Whittard's but I'm always surprised how few posh tea's are Fairtrade. When I searched for "Fairtrade" on the Whittard website I found no results. I wonder why there seem to be lots of upmarket Fairtrade coffees but very few upmarket Fairtrade teas. My favourite Fairtrade tea is the Co-op's 99 which is definitely nice enough to be going on with.

So, if you love the little guy support Fairtrade fortnight this week however you can. You could join the mini march on the Fairtrade Foundation website, buy some Fairtrade chocolate or maybe find that elusive posh Fairtrade tea. Whatever you choose, be happy in the knowledge that everyone's getting a fair share of the price.