Is your Business Supporting Fairtrade Fortnight?

 

Getting to Know Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight is an annual event organised and funded over the period of two weeks by Fairtrade Foundation. Its aim is to increase awareness of Fairtrade products. It brings together companies, individuals, and groups across the United Kingdom to share stories of the people who grow the foods we eat, drinks we take, cotton we use for clothes, and many more, but get exploited and underpaid.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2020 kicked off on the 24^th of February till the 8^th of March. This fortnight event hosts businesses from various sectors such as agriculture, food service, and many others and includes products such as coffee and tea, fruits and even cotton etc. Its main focus, however, is placed on cocoa.

Getting You and Your Business Involved

Fairtrade Fortnight is a way to get people to notice what they are actually purchasing and become aware of the sources of ingredients and the rights of the farmers. Canteens, cafes, coffee shops, restaurants, catering services, and others can seize this opportunity to get people to see the benefits of purchasing Fairtrade products. The big question is, "how?"

There are plenty of ways for foodservice businesses to get involved.

1. Telling Your Fairtrade Story Using its Provided Digital Assets

Fairtrade Fortnight now has resources to create videos, infographics, and posters using its new B2B toolkit. They can be downloaded and used on your social platforms and in your delicious chocolate cupcake store.

2. Order the Free fortnight Event Packs

These event packs are available to order and use on your website to promote Fairtrade. The event packs include 10 table talkers, two posters, and 3 Fairtrade mark stencils.

3. Order Fairtrade Merchandise

Order Fairtrade merchandise for display in-store from the dedicated online shop. This merchandise costs nothing, and are great for showcasing on your coffee stand, pizza franchise store, restaurant, etc.

4. Share the Fairtrade Fortnight Campaign Action Guide

Spread awareness about Fairtrade Fortnight to colleagues, friends, and customers to get people involved. Sharing the campaign action guide will help to educate people and let them know how to get involved.

5. Purchase Fairtrade Products

Those cocoa beans in your chocolate drinks and bars and coffee beans in your lattes are planted, harvested, and sometimes processed by farmers who end up not living with an appropriate income. Advertise which drinks and foods use Fairtrade products and educate customers of the benefits of supporting the cause.

To find resources and more information about Fairtrade Fortnight visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/get-involved/current-campaigns/Fairtrade-Fortnight

Why Fairtrade Fortnight Needs You

One of the main focuses for Fairtrade Fortnight is cocoa and the farmers that supply it. The Ivory Coast and Ghana are the two largest producers of cocoa, and together they cultivate over 50% of the world's cocoa, but these cultivators still live below the standard living income. Fairtrade Fortnight aims to help these farmers attain that standard.

Although these Fairtrade products are more expensive than what you get from the regular market, it's a way to give back to these farmers and create awareness for better treatment of these people. With your purchase of these products and support, these farmers will get a certain percentage to help achieve a living income.

Where We Come in and What We Offer

Every customer wants to feel that they’re getting their money's worth with visually pleasing products combined with exquisite tastes. When you marry this with the moral and ethical benefits for customers of supporting Fairtrade products, it can be a great boost for business, while raising awareness for a good cause. Fairtrade products are known to be more expensive to buy than regular supplies, which will, in turn, increase the overall selling costs. To keep your customers glued to you, making sure they don't resent paying that little extra, your business must be willing to offer products that reflect the additional pennies.

When customers come to buy your Fairtrade produce, ensure that they're not only getting great tasting chocolate cakes and hot chocolate drinks made with Fairtrade cocoa, refreshing lemonade from Fairtrade lemons, sumptuous coffee made with Fairtrade coffee beans and moist banana loaf using Fairtrade bananas but that they also understand how they are enhancing the lives of the farmers who cultivate the ingredients.

Investing your cash in quality commercial catering equipment and supplies is essential to deliver the best results for your customers. Your foodservice business needs this quality equipment to help put those purchased Fairtrade ingredients to ravishing use. By investing in a high functioning commercial coffee and espresso machine and a performance coffee grinder for example, you can make that Fairtrade coffee into a delicious cappuccino that’s worth every penny. The cost of these tools and supplies, however, can be high. When this is the case, one preferred option to go for is commercial leasing. Spreading the cost for those high ticket items means that your business can enjoy the best equipment without the large upfront cost. These products are leased for an agreed-upon number of months till the price for that product is fully paid.

Once Fairtrade Fortnight is over, this doesn't mean that your business has to forego its elegant results when your business reverts to its original coffee or chocolate suppliers. Why? You still possess those high performing machines and equipment that get the job done and done well.

Most importantly, your awareness and promotion of the Fairtrade products and its annual event might prove a massive hit with your customers and open a new avenue for your business. You may see a switch to Fairtrade products being not only a profitable stream for your premises but also an ethically sound decision by helping to improve the lives of the farmers and giving cultivators in other countries a better living income.