NOW CLOSED: Do you buy Fairtrade products? Share your views (and hear about The Big Fair Bake) – and you could win a fab Baking Goodie Bag worth £100

[AnnMumsnet]

We've been asked by The Fairtrade Foundation to find out your thoughts on why Fairtrade products aren't bought by more people and also to encourage you to get involved in the Big Fair Bake.

Add your thoughts below - or share how you're getting involved (including who (person, group etc) you'd love to bake for) for a chance to win a lovely Baking Goodie Bag (worth £100).

The Fairtrade Foundation say "we think baking tastes better when you share it, so we want The Big Fair Bake to inspire the nation to bake for others. It's as simple as buying a few Fairtrade ingredients, popping on your pinny or rolling up your sleeves and baking up a treat - not just for friends, family, colleagues, but also the farming communities in developing countries who grew the ingredients".

"Baking with Fairtrade ingredients is one easy way for everyone to make a difference to millions of people who desperately need a better deal from trade. Without a fair price for the crops they grow, many farmers struggle to support their families. Fairtrade offers farmers and workers the safety net of a fair price today and a little extra to invest in projects which benefit the whole community, such as clean water, education and health care".

"The good news is that sales of Fairtrade products have reached £1.3 billion in the UK, however this still only accounts for 3% of all our food and drink purchases"

The Fairtrade Foundation would love to know your thoughts on what would make you bake with more Fairtrade ingredients? How can they encourage others to do so too?

Let us know what you think and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a fantastic Bake Goodie Bag, packed with £100 worth of Tala baking equipment, Fairtrade baking ingredients (including cocoa, vanilla, nuts, chocolate and dried fruit), cake decorations and complementary Fairtrade products to enjoy with your cakes, including tea and coffee.

You can find out more about The Big Fair Bake here.

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

[madhairday]

I buy a lot of fairtrade items and find that buying in bulk is the answer. I do a huge online shop from the Traidcraft website every six months or so and get those big tins of coffee/catering packs of tea, cocoa, cereal bars etc etc. Yes it's expensive but doing it like this works out a lot cheaper and means I don't have to think about a lot of staple stuff on the weekly shop. I get bananas, sugar (though sometimes just get british sugar), sometimes pasta and rice. I buy ft clothes where possible; my bugbear with that is not so much the price, though that is prohibitive I recognise as compared to Primark et al, but the lack of range for kids clothes - it's very limited, and non existent for preteens/teenagers and rubbish for mens clothing too, so I'd like to see more choice in that.

I prefer to buy off ebay for cost and feel its more ethical to re-use than buy clothes made in some third world sweatshop. Not always possible and I do use high street stores too, but trying to change over my buying more. I can't really afford it, so mostly just don't buy. I'm with weegiemum on this one :)

I also refuse to buy kitkats despite the fairtrade logo, it doesn't make Nestle suddenly an ethical company. I think Cadburys at least has a better history of treating its employers well and being a more altruistic company in general.

I don't know what the answer is, because most people just can't afford it now, and prices necessarily have to be higher in order for farmers to be paid the fair wage. However, ft is much more high profile than it once was, so the ft foundation must be doing something right. A lot of ground has been gained, which is why I can't go along with the 'what about the non ft farmers with no living wage' etc...if we never did anything, nothing would ever change. But already much has changed for the better and companies have had to take it on board.

wish tesco would do better - my local one is crap for ft stuff.

[fallingandlaughing]

I think fairtrade is equated with wholesome wholemeal low sugar boringness for many people, so doesn't appeal when baking. If people were aware of the full range of products available they might just see them as good choices, not wholesome choices.

Price is also a factor, though I think the difference isn't as big as it once was.

I'd love to bake for my Mum. Not only does she evangelise about fair trade, she also makes delicious things for my daughter who has loads of food allergies, my nephew who has loads of different allergies and her best friend, who has coeliac disease. I don't know how she comes up with things to suit everyone!

[neolara]

I have a dithery dilemma every time I buy bananas - fairtrade or organic? It would be so much easier if there was the option of fairtrade AND organic.

[Jins]

I buy local where possible, British if I can and Fairtrade if I can't. I buy fairtrade chocolate, coffee, rice and sugar (if not homegrown!)

I like to think that the producers are getting a fair price and I hope that my small contribution makes a difference to someone but I do worry that much of the profits get lost along the way

[balia]

I had no idea sainsburys were so good at Fairtrade - I might start looking at swapping my weekly shop to them as Tesco's really isn't very good - in fact I always put Fairtrade bananas on my internet shop and get substituted for ordinary ones I get the sugar, too, and buy FT cotton clothes when I see them but clearly am woefully under-informed about other products I can get. What coffee is FT, then?

[THETrills]

I buy Fairtrade sugar because sugar is sugar, but not tea or coffee because I'm not sure that it would be as nice as my usual brand.

I'd support the idea of small packs of tea/coffee/other "recipe" Fairtrade things to encourage people to try it as an alternative - I don't want to spend £4 or £5 on a bag of proper coffee if it's going to be nasty.

[androbbob]

Economics an issue here too. The fairtrade stuff is a great idea but can be pricey. I buy fairtrade when there is a choice such as sugar, bananas, chocolate, coffee and tea

[afussyphase]

I buy fair trade when I see it - usually tea, sugar, bananas, coffee, and chocolate. I think it's really important especially with chocolate because that industry has a bad reputation for child labour. But what someone said above really struck home, about liking the idea of having a choice. We shouldn't have a choice: all trade should be fair. Really, we shouldn't allow ourselves to exploit children, damage childrens' prospects for education, and so on, to save ourselves and our supermarkets a few pence, or to get ourselves 300g of chocolate or coffee instead of 200g (I'm sure there are those who genuinely struggle, but for the vast majority, while cost is a factor, it's not a real struggle to pay 20p more for bananas or get fewer chocolate bars). We have, or will soon have, the technology to monitor conditions closely; we could legislate against importing products whose production lines break basic rules.
In the meantime, I'd buy more fair trade wine if I could sample it first. I'd get more fair trade products in general if they were available in the shop where I happen to be and if I have confidence in their quality.

[Himalaya]

Isn't 3% quite good in context in terms of uptake? I mean fair trade products are a limited selection. I don't think I spend more than 3% of my food bill on chocolate, sugar, banannas, tea bags and coffee anyway (mainly FT)

Is the aim to get more people to buy fair trade for these products, to expand the product range or to get more mainstream and own brand products to adopt the principles as standard?

Baking does seem a bit of a token activity. How about a fair trade iphone ?!

[sussextealady]

I like the idea of buying fairtrade, but it is not always easy to find in certain supermarkets. It is also about education, needs to be more widely advertised to make general public more aware of it.My son did a project at school on fairtrade, so we started to support fairtrade then and learnt a lot about it, which was useful and do try to buy if I can find it!

[alibeenherealongtime]

I use the Co op and they have a lot of fairtrade products, and so I buy whenever possible, but price is always foremost in my mind, but if it only pence in it, I will buy Fairtade.

The Co Op always highlight in their newsletter about Fairtrade products and it does bring it to my attention, I like reading about the difference it can make to a lot os peoples lives.

[BlueEyeshadow]

THETrills - Sainsbury's FT coffee is lovely!

neolara - Aldi do organic, fairtrade bananas...

[cheryl59]

I thought I bought a lot more fairtrade than I do. I took part in The Big Bake Fair (blogged about our entry here : madhousefamilyreviews.blogspot.com/2012/09/our-entry-for-fairtrade-big-fair-bake.html - hope that's allowed, not just a random plug, it's to make a point !!). I went through the cupboards to get out all the lovely Fairtrade baking products I was sure I had, only to discover that I didn't have any at all. I was absolutely convinced that some of them were Fairtrade, but it turns out they were organic or eco-cert or something or other but not Fairtrade. I think we're getting blinded by the labels now because there are just too many different criteria to look out for. I went shopping for all Fairtrade ingredients and was surprised to see that you can get Fairtrade bananas in Lidl and absolutely loads of own-brand Sainsbury's or Morrissons things as Fairtrade so it's not hard to do when you make a conscious effort. Maybe a bigger label, to make it more obvious when it's fairtrade ?

[ICutMyFootOnOccamsRazor]

I buy Fairtrade pretty often for certain things e.g. coffee, sugar, bananas (same as everyone else!).

I think a good way to get Fartrade used more would be to get it into more value-added products like yoghurt, ice cream, biscuits, cakes etc. If the manufacturers of those types of products could be persuaded to use Fairtade, that would raise the sales and the profile of Fairtrade products overall

I would also really support the idea of introducing British Fairtrade whereby farmers are paid proper prices.

[nannynick]

Well done Cheryl, I would guess your banana bread was 50-65% Fairtrade.

Anyone know what percentage of Fairtrade ingredients have to be used to gain Fairtrafe certification? Looking at Dairy Milk, Cadbury's says at least 70% of the ingredients are Fairtrade.

Today I brought Sainsbury's Fairtrade chocolate for the first time. So discussing Fairtrade has resulted in a buying decision.

[EmmelineGoulden]

A decade plus ago I didn't buy Fairtrade so much because I did not have as much money and generally had to go to a church run shop or Oxfam to get it. Availability and range has improved dramatically since then, as, fortunately, has my income. So I now buy Fairtrade food whenever it's available for the product I want to purchase. I prioritise that over organic though I prefer organic Fairtrade.

Now the main reason I would buy something that wasn't Fairtrade is because Fairtrade isn't available where I'm shopping.

I find places run out of Fairtrade stuff and some can go weeks between restocks. Don't know if that's because (some of) the shops that stock Fairtrade are less good at stock management or because supplies are sometimes erratic.

To encourage people to bake with Fairtrade, I'm not sure. Your Communications and marketing people must surely know what pushes people's buttons in terms of getting them to empathise with and support the Fairtrade mission. But ideas for events:
-Maybe try hooking up with other charities that people do coffee mornings and cake stalls for so you can do a double event promoting Fairtrade and raising money for a different charity?
-Try getting producing a project pack for schools that follows the national curriculum emphasizing Fairtrade info (economics, geography and food tech subjects?). At the end suggest they do a bake sale using Fairtrade ingredients.
-Similarly train up speakers for WI meetings.
-Push a Fairtrade Trading Fair - where people set up a market to sell Fairtrade and secondhand or local goods.
-Try providing "Made with Fairtrade Goods" stickers in with Fairtrade flour and sugar. So people who do bake with Fairtrade goods can advertise that fact easily on each cake they sell.

[somanymiles]

Having the Fairtrade products on the shelf in the major supermarkets is the biggest thing. I will buy Fairtrade if I see it on the shelf, but not if I have to hunt for it. Maybe suggest haveing a Fairtrade section to some of the big supermarkets? That would help. Also, working with the Girl Guide Association and other clubs to draw the links between child labour and buying non fair trade chocolate and sugar - kids really get this stuff and they will "sell" it to their parents. Ditto for kids' tv programs, or even advertising during peak kids' viewing times. I love that Cadbury's dairy milk choc is now fair trade!

[GetKnitted]

For myself, price is probably the main issue (not that I'm particularly proud of that reality). On my DH's side, not actually being convinced of the benefit to the producer compared to normal markets is the biggest factor in not going fair.

[racingheart]

We always buy Fairtrade bananas, coffee, chocolate and cocoa. Can't remember the last time we bought these items without a Fairtrade label. Often buy Fairtrade sugar, biscuits and sweets for the children at church Fairtrade stall. TBH sometimes I buy something because it's what i'm looking for, then see it is Fairtrade, but hadn't chosen it for that reason. However, once I've noticed the label, I do then look out for it and choose it over other brands.

Yes, price is the biggest factor. If it's a few pence more, that's fine, but when it's double, and DH is out of work, it makes no sense.

If you want people to bake with Fairtrade, I'd do a costing per recipe. If people know they can make a great cake or plate of biscuits which work out only a few pence more per slice/cookie that non Fairtrade, and you tie that in with the difference it makes to the farmers, that could be very persuasive.

Also, you could start with some recipes that use the fairtrade items we all buy these days: banana bread; coffee cake with espresso frosting; then add in some recipes that promote the items you want more people to accept as their regular brand.

[RememberYoureAWomble]

We always buy fairtrade tea, coffee and chocolate and usually fairtrade bananas, sugar, cocoa and cashew nuts. This has become much easier and cheaper since Sainsburys have started making a lot of their own-brand products fairtrade. It also really helps when brands like Cadbury's and Nestle have fairtrade products.

If I'm choosing between two products and one has the fairtrade logo and the other doesn't, I'll usually choose the fairtrade product. However, I will often choose local or British produce in preference to produce shipped from overseas in order to minimise the environmental impact. We get most of our fruit and veg via an organic box scheme.

I would bake with more fairtrade products if more were readily available. In particular, it would be nice to be able to get fairtrade chocolate chips and fairtrade cake decorations, especially the chocolate ones. It's great to be able to get fairtrade cooking chocolate now via Green & Black's - it's really nice chocolate too!

[musthavecoffee]

I buy fair trade where possible, but increasingly I'm governed by price over principle. I strongly believe that the fair trade movement makes a huge difference to peoples lives and it's with this in mind that I try to do my birthday present shopping throughout the year in the local fair trade shop.
Availability is also a deciding factor, the large mainstream companies need to be made to get on board with fair trade!

[mummybrained]

though i know we all take personal responsibility, the success of fairtrade relies on stockists giving you the option. My family prefer me to buy fairtrade fruit, coffee, suger, tea, etc. but if you're in Tesco (for instance) instead of Sainsburys the fairtrade option is not one of the cheapest, it really has to be these days to get in the family shopping basket (that said their fairtrade tea is lovely). This year, most of my ethical considerations have flown out the window, sadly, with the freerange chicken, as food prices shoot up.
I hadn't heard of the big bake, sounds like a great idea.
You only have to look as coffeeshops switching to fairtrade coffee as standard to see the difference suppliers can make to our shopping habits. PS there really needs to be more fairtrade chocolate on the market, not just high end stuff but the guilty pleasures in the petrol station shop, would be easier to justify if they were fairtrade

[mrsbunnyw]

I do buy fairtrade whenever I can; sugar, cocoa, chocolate, tea, coffee, bananas. But there are very many other products for which there is no fairtrade option available in supermarkets.

I think many people are dissuaded because of price, but also some friends just don't believe either that the profits really go to the farmers, or that the farmers are wise enough to use the money for their good. Not a view I share, but certainly one i've heard.

[xxxkadzxxx]

I would love for my family to be able to purchase fairtrade products as i would really like to support it but there is no way we can afford to and that is the only reason why we dont.
If the prices were to match the others on the shelf then i would 100% choose fairtrade over anything else despite the brands choice offered.