We all know the Fairtrade mark. That little blue, green and black logo has been appearing on our coffee, chocolate, bananas and cotton for decades, quietly doing its job in the corner of the packet. But how often do we stop to think about what it actually means? Fairtrade Fortnight, running annually from the end of September to the start of October, is a great excuse to do exactly that.
This year’s message is ‘Do it Fair, for People, for Planet and for Fair Pay.’ Two weeks won’t fix the inequalities within global supply chains, but they can get us talking about them, and that conversation matters more than it might seem. So let’s talk about it.
What is Fairtrade?
Fairtrade is about making trade work better for the people right at the beginning of the supply chain, the farmers and workers growing and producing many of the things we use every day – and that’s lot of people! According to Fairtrade International’s latest monitoring data, 1.87 million farmers and workers across 1,824 producer organisations were part of Fairtrade in 2024, with around 90% of those people working as farmers.
Fairtrade standards cover working conditions, environmental protection and workers’ rights, and for many commodities the system also provides a Fairtrade Minimum Price, a safety net for when market prices fall. Alongside it sits the Fairtrade Premium, an additional sum that producer organisations decide how to invest themselves. In 2024 alone, producers earned €201.6 million in Fairtrade Premium, with more than €1 billion generated over the previous five years. That’s not insignificant change, and it’s the kind of figure worth sitting with for a moment.
Why Does Fair Pay Matter?
Think about your morning coffee. More than one billion people drink coffee every day, and around 125 million people worldwide depend on it for their livelihoods. Yet Fairtrade reports that many coffee farmers still struggle to earn enough to cover the costs of growing and harvesting it, and that’s the uncomfortable bit.
The product at the end of a supply chain can be incredibly valuable while the person at the beginning of it remains financially vulnerable. Fair pay isn’t just about today’s income either – it shapes whether farmers can invest in their businesses, support their families and prepare for whatever comes next.
People and Planet Aren’t Separate Problems
Climate change adds another layer to all of this. Smallholder farmers produce around a third of the world’s food, yet Fairtrade says they are also among those hit hardest by the consequences of a changing climate. Unpredictable weather, drought, disease and shifting growing conditions don’t just affect crops, they affect incomes and entire communities, often the ones with the least cushion to absorb the impact.
Coffee farmer Marbin Asunción Villegas, from the Sol & Café co-operative in Peru, offers a good example of what greater resilience can look like in practice. With support from Fairtrade, Marbin has introduced agroforestry, growing trees such as laurels and eucalyptus alongside coffee plants. The approach can restore soil, provide shade, support biodiversity and create an additional source of income, several benefits growing from a single change. As Marbin puts it, ‘Fairtrade has also allowed us to implement agroforestry demonstration plots… which generates a double income for members.’
Fair pay and environmental progress, it turns out, can grow from the same roots.
What Does This Have to Do with Merchandise?
Quite a lot, actually! Cotton, coffee, tea, chocolate and other agricultural materials and ingredients can all find their way into branded products and gifting. Every product has a supply chain behind it, whether we see it or not, and that chain doesn’t disappear just because the end result has a logo printed on it. Our own approach to sustainability is built on taking that supply chain seriously, from the materials we choose to how they’re produced.
That’s why certification matters. It isn’t a magic stamp that makes every sustainability challenge disappear, but it gives buyers recognised standards to look for, questions to ask and evidence to base decisions on. We hold ourselves to a similar standard of transparency in our own accreditations, including our B Corp™ status, because we think buyers deserve the same clarity from us that Fairtrade gives shoppers in the supermarket aisle. It’s also why we champion products with a social mission behind them, so the value a campaign creates reaches further than the desk it lands on.
For us, that’s the interesting part of Fairtrade Fortnight. It asks us to look beyond what we’re buying and think about who made it, how it was produced, and where the value goes. Better merch shouldn’t just look good when it lands on someone else’s desk.
So let’s ask more of our supply chains, not just this fortnight, but every time we choose what goes into a branded gift.
Want to learn more about how sustainability shapes our day-to-day? Read more about our accreditations and carbon neutrality, or talk to the team about how it could shape yours.
