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……