Meeting of the Parliament 25 March 2025
I am grateful for the opportunity to close the debate for Scottish Labour and to support the amendment in the name of my colleague Colin Smyth. It has been a positive, constructive and, if I may say so, relatively pleasant debate. It is clear from the speeches that there is significant support across the chamber for fair trade. It was good that, in his opening speech, the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture acknowledged the long-standing place of fair trade and Jack McConnell’s role in this Parliament.
It is also evident that there is significant support for fair trade across Scotland. We heard many positive examples of work that is being carried out to promote it. We heard powerful testimony from my colleague Foysol Choudhury, who spoke about the impact that fair trade is having in Bangladesh and how marginalised women have the opportunity to make a fair wage by creating products from upcycled saris, which are sold right here in Edinburgh.
Murdo Fraser mentioned Aberfeldy, which became the first Fairtrade town in Scotland, in 2002, and Willie Rennie mentioned St Andrews. Colin Smyth highlighted the work of Holy Cross high school in Hamilton, and I am pleased that pupils and staff from the school have joined us in the gallery and stayed for the duration of the debate—I thank them for that.
We heard many other examples from across the chamber of good work, and there are great examples in my area, too. George Adam spoke a great deal about Paisley becoming a Fairtrade town in 2003. I pay tribute, as George Adam did, to the late Provost John McDowall, who was a champion of the fair trade movement.
One of the organisations that John McDowall worked with was Rainbow Turtle, which George Adam also mentioned and which I had the pleasure of visiting earlier this year. Based in Paisley town centre, it is an excellent fair trade shop that has been operating since 2002. It was great to meet the staff and volunteers and see the variety of products that they stock and the work that they do to sell fair trade products.
I also want to highlight the work of True Origin, a wholesaler in Paisley that I also visited a few weeks ago. It works with a network of smallholder farmers and producers in the global south in order to source the finest ethical foods.
It is important to recognise all the efforts that are being made to make Scotland a fair trade nation. I echo members’ thanks to all those who have volunteered their time and played a vital role in Scotland achieving that status. As Colin Smyth and the cabinet secretary said earlier, thanks must go, in particular, to Scottish Fair Trade, which was led by former chief executive Martin Rhodes and is now led by Louise Davies.
It is also important for us to acknowledge that such work is being replicated in other parts of the United Kingdom, which is what makes us one of the biggest fair trade markets in the world. We heard from Murdo Fraser that, in 2023, £28 million was paid in premiums from Fairtrade products sold in the UK.
I have always believed in people getting a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. That is one of the main motivations that brought me into politics, and it is why, for example, I support the new deal for working people, which will strengthen employment rights and increase the national minimum wage in the UK. However, that principle must apply to fair trade internationally, too. Fair trade and Fairtrade premiums play an integral role in ensuring that farmers and workers in the developing world receive fair pay for their produce and safer working conditions.
The Co-operative Party, of which I am a member, has been and continues to be hugely supportive of fair trade. In fact, long before it was fashionable, the co-operative movement was an early adopter of fair trade products, and the Co-op was the first supermarket to stock fair trade goods. The United Nations has designated 2025 as an international year of co-operatives, and the theme is “Cooperatives Build a Better World”. I associate myself with the Scottish Co-operative Party’s belief that supporting fair trade will contribute to creating that better world.
We are right to celebrate Scotland’s efforts to promote fair trade, but, as we look to the future, we can and should do more—members across the parties called for that.
George Adam made very valid points in his speech, and I agree with him on sports equipment and the opportunity to expand Fairtrade products in that sector. Bala Sport’s footballs, which, as the Presiding Officer will know, the Scottish Parliament football team has used from time to time, are produced in Pakistan. The premium that is paid on them is used by Bala’s partners in Pakistan to provide discounted groceries for their workers. Sports bodies and clubs should do more, and some schools have purchased Fairtrade sports balls, but more can and should be done to help more schools to follow suit.
That leads me to Colin Smyth’s point about procurement. We should have a standardised definition in law of “fairly traded goods” in order to enhance transparency and accountability. Alongside that, we should consider removing existing barriers. As Colin Smyth said, £16 billion is spent on public procurement in Scotland each year, but, despite Scottish Fair Trade’s best efforts, we have little idea how much of that is spent on fair trade. I say to the cabinet secretary that if the Scottish Government is serious about the issue, it should get serious about measuring it. I hope that he will respond to those points in his closing speech.
This has been a good debate, and we are right to mark Scotland’s renewing its status as a fair trade nation, but we can and must do more to ensure that people around the world get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.