Hansard

I, too, want to thank Clare Adamson for securing today’s debate. I also thank Gordon MacDonald for standing in to kick off the discussion, and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum for all its work.

It is timely that we meet so recently after Fairtrade fortnight to highlight the benefits of fair trade, but we also need to focus on it all year round. Fair trade is crucial in ensuring that goods are produced ethically, and it is a key tool that we, as consumers, have in knowing that the price that we pay delivers for our environment and in relation to fair work principles for producers. Fair trade directly benefits the communities that the producers live in.

The Corana RI Irupana co-operative in Bolivia provides a brilliant example of the benefits of fair trade for people and communities. Research shows that the co-operative is in a stable situation that has resulted in 60 per cent of its members being able to access electricity, 97 per cent recycling their organic waste, an impressive 86 per cent believing that they are better off in the organisation than they were before being in it, and 54 per cent having jobs created in their community. The delivery of high-quality sustainable products, easier access to credit for smallholders and investment in community services, including food security and scholarships, are but a few of the many benefits that fair trade has for consumers and producers worldwide.

A couple of weeks ago, at our cross-party group on fair trade, it was inspiring to hear from producers. There was the story of Sholi Coffee in Rwanda, which started as a small association of 30 women and has not stopped growing since. We heard about the contribution of the Kasinthula Cane Growers’ Association from Malawi, which managed to convert largely unproductive land to sugar cane production, thereby providing an income for 282 subsistence farmers and employment for nearly 800 permanent and seasonal field workers. We then heard about the positive impact of fair trade in supporting producers and their communities in Palestine.

As other members have said, however, the challenges that have been posed by the pandemic have had an impact; they have left producer organisations struggling to cope, and have affected the livelihoods of their workers. Research shows that Covid-19 significantly affected the business viability of fair trade producers, with a majority of producers reporting a decrease in production and lower fair trade and non-fair trade sales in 2020 than there were in 2019. A significant minority experienced lower prices and fewer buyers. The Africa and middle east region was the worst hit, with almost 70 per cent of the sampled producer organisations there reporting declines in production and sales.

There is much more that we need to do. Fairtrade has made a difference to the lives of more than 500,000 farmers and workers in nearly 60 countries. As the second country in the world to be named a fair trade nation, Scotland is ahead of the game, but there is so much more that we need to do. It is not us just about signing the pledge as individuals; we must also consider how ethical public sector procurement can make the maximum possible difference. It is about looking at what we as consumers can do to support local fair trade shops.

I am proud of the fact that Edinburgh has been a Fairtrade city since 2004. We have fantastic shops such as Hadeel, with its focus on Palestinian fair trade crafts, and the One World Shop, which brings in fantastic sustainable and fairly traded goods from across the world. We have, on our high streets, access to fair trade products in Oxfam shops, which have products from more than 70 countries around the world. As Gordon MacDonald said, we also have Co-operative Group and Scotmid shops on our high streets across Scotland. At the recent meeting of the fair trade cross-party group, we also focused on the fact that we can all buy fair trade goods online, wherever we live in Scotland.

There is much more that we can do. Let us hope that today’s message is a positive one. It is a call to action for all of us that we can all buy fair trade goods. I encourage everyone to go online, check out their local shops and support communities across the world. They need our trade and our investment, which is transformative.