As the annual fortnight to promote the Fairtrade campaign across the UK and beyond drew to a close it was good to be joined this morning by Caryl Kwei from the Brentwood Fairtrade Group.
The theme of this year’s Fortnight has been to “make bananas fair”, and Caryl explained how a price war between some of the major supermarkets means that many producers of bananas – the country’s favourite fruit – are being forced into poverty. Fairtrade is asking people to do two things – to buy only Fairtrade bananas; and to support a petition calling on the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, to investigate the impact of supermarket pricing practices and act to protect banana farmers. Details of the petition are on the Fairtrade website.
Caryl also explained what the Brentwood group has been doing, and how they’d be delighted to welcome new members to help spread the word. We also talked about how being the Borough’s first Fairtrade school has a positive effect on the pupils at Holly Trees Primary beyond learning about the issues specifically connected with Fairtrade, and how other schools can get involved.
Contact details for Brentwood Fairtrade are on the website. To listen again to our chat click here: