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Fairtrade Fortnight 2022

Giant grass art installation marks the launch of this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight
Aerial view of grass art installation

To mark the start of Fairtrade Fortnight (21 Feb-06 March), Fairtrade has commissioned a giant grass painting of Bismark Kpabitey, a Fairtrade cocoa farmer who is a member of the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union in the Ahafo region of Ghana.

Produced by Sand In Your Eye in West Yorkshire, the image depicts Kpabitey holding a cocoa pod aloft, and is designed to help consumers make the link between their food and the people who produce it.

Kpabitey, who recently attended COP26 on behalf of Fairtrade, stated: ‘Looking at the situation now it is very difficult to go into agriculture because the rainfall pattern has changed. There is a long drought – currently we are experiencing a very hot sun, which is affecting our crops and has really reduced production. And once production is reduced, financially you become handicapped. That is the challenge.’

‘Smallholder farmers in low-income countries are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with droughts, floods and storms severely threatening livelihoods of producers across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. For these farmers and workers, a decent income is absolutely essential for building resilience to climate shocks, and ensuring they can adapt to a continually evolving climate.
 
‘Without good wages, their livelihoods are severely threatened – as is the supply of everyday products these farmers and workers produce. Consumers have the power to make a difference to producers’ lives by choosing Fairtrade products when they do their shopping. This in turn will help producers to build climate resilience, allowing them to continue producing items like tea, coffee and bananas that we consume every day.’

DR SARAH CARDEY
Director of the Graduate Institute for International Development, Agriculture and Economics (GIIDAE) at the University of Reading

Covid-19 and farming

Fairtrade Fortnight begins today (21 February) with a screening of a special cut of ‘Caroline’s Story’, a ground-breaking new documentary by Nyakobi Kahura.

The film is part of a series that showcases how the Covid-19 pandemic and climate crisis are impacting farming right now, and how through working with Fairtrade, producers are already taking action to overcome these challenges.

The virtual event will feature a Q&A with Caroline Rono, a Kenyan coffee farmer featured in the film.

Fairtrade Fortnight art

‘The climate crisis is a threat to all our food security worldwide and we all have a part to play in protecting our food and our world – consumers, companies, and governments alike. Too many farmers struggle every day to put food on their tables while growing food for ours. They suffer at the bottom of a global trading system, still balanced in favour of the powerful few.
 
‘Fairtrade works to rebalance that inequality so that all farmers can earn enough to feed and clothe and educate their families, while producing crops of delicious quality undamaged by toxic pesticides for our tables. We get to buy healthy tasty food for our families, grown by healthy farmers working in harmony with their environment.  This is the Fairtrade culture that I’m so proud to support.

‘By buying Fairtrade the people I feed are well, the families of the farmers who grow the food are well and the land that supports the crops is well. We make choices every day – please stretch out hands of love and hope across the world and choose Fairtrade for fairness, wellness and delicious food and drink!’

ADJOA ANDOH
Bridgerton actress and Fairtrade patron

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