Fairtrade Fortnight
The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S3M-1174, in the name of Patricia Ferguson, on celebrating Fairtrade fortnight. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises the ongoing efforts of individuals and organisations working to promote and raise awareness of fair trade in Scotland, welcomes the steady increase in the number of schools, colleges, church groups, towns and cities across Scotland who now have Fairtrade status; acknowledges the important contribution made by the Scottish Fair Trade Forum in the work to help Scotland achieve Fairtrade nation status, notes that Fairtrade fortnight will take place from 24 February to 9 March 2008, and looks forward to marking this at an event in the Parliament on the evening of Thursday 28 February.
I should begin by stating the obvious, which is that Fairtrade fortnight has come and gone. However, that is not a reason for not debating it this evening. We have the opportunity both to reflect on the success of those two weeks of celebration and to look to the future.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Fairtrade conjured up the thought of not very good tea and not very good coffee, but nowadays more than 200 different Fairtrade products are available to us, and the quality is excellent. Across the country, towns and villages are following the example of Aberfeldy and Fairlie, which proudly proclaim their Fairtrade status. Cities are now getting in on the act too, with Glasgow achieving the accolade last year. East Renfrewshire became a Fairtrade local authority at the same time. Many schools have been so honoured too. Entire school communities have embraced the concept, including Hillhead high school in my colleague Pauline McNeill's constituency, and its feeder primaries Oakgrove primary school and Willowbank primary school in my constituency.
There is no doubt in my mind that the announcement by Jack McConnell in March 2005 that the then Scottish Executive would take a lead on this issue and would work to support the idea of Scotland becoming one of the world's first Fairtrade nations has helped to support the commitment that many already had. Funding of the Scottish fair trade forum, and the appointment of its co-ordinator, Betsy Reed, have allowed it to go from strength to strength. I have no doubt that the dedication and leadership of John McAllion as the forum's first chair will also assist our country in achieving its ambition. It was good to celebrate Fairtrade fortnight with them and with others, but achieving Fairtrade town, village or nation status is only a means to an end. It is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our commitment to the ideals of fair trade and to encourage others to understand them and embrace them. Of course, we do not just do that for the sake of it; we get involved in the fair trade movement because of the effect that it has on the producers.
We know that this is an ill-divided world. If those of us who in relative terms have so much can pay a few more pence for goods here, the effect that we have can be disproportionate, especially on those who work so hard and so long to produce the goods that we enjoy. The Fairtrade premium that we pay helps to ensure that farmers and producers in other countries can have clean drinking water, health care and education for their children. However, it can go further than that. It also often allows farmers to have access to irrigation and seeds and fertilisers for the next season.
If we, as wealthy citizens of a wealthy country, can afford to pay a little more for Fairtrade items, how much more could the countries of the developed world do? Rich countries set the rules governing trade—rules that mean poor countries lose out. They dump subsidised goods on developing nations, control and limit poor countries' share of the world markets by slapping high taxes on imported goods, and control patents in ways that mean that poor people cannot afford vital medicines.
Over the past few years, the European countries and the African, Caribbean and Pacific—or ACP—countries have been negotiating trade agreements. Europe has insisted that those countries negotiate a far-reaching free trade agreement. However, by September of last year, it was obvious that it would not be possible to conclude a deal because the outstanding disagreements were so far reaching. Europe agreed to postpone talks until 2008, but only on some of the issues. It also insisted that most of the deal had to be done by December 2007 and that, if it was not, tariffs would be raised on exports, which would in effect close markets, put companies out of business and destroy jobs. It is no surprise to any of us that, under pressure, some countries involved felt that they had to deal. It is fair to say that they did so with a sense of anger.
The 76 ACP countries have been put under immense pressure to conclude a deal. In December 2007, 35 of them concluded deals and 41 refused to do so. The ACP countries have asked political leaders around Europe to support the renegotiation of the worst part of the deal. So far, Europe has not responded. Indeed, we suspect that, during 2008, the European Commission wants to get all ACP countries to sign those agreements, and to expand the contents of the deal, making them even more favourable to Europe and even less favourable to the poorer countries. We all have a vital role to play in promoting trade justice and fair labour practice in countries throughout the world. For us as individuals, it is about Fairtrade products, and making a point of taking the Fairtrade option where it exists. It is about encouraging Governments to play fair on trade.
In the expectation that a large number of members might wish to speak this evening, I am deliberately keeping my remarks short. I recognise—as I am sure we all do—the contribution of everyone who works so hard all year round to support Fairtrade. We should also send greetings to those who work so hard to produce the Fairtrade goods that we enjoy. However, we must also renew our pressure on the European Union to agree fair deals with the developing world.
Scotland's celebration of fair trade lasts for two weeks, but our campaign continues until real trade justice is achieved.
We move to the debate. A considerable number of back benchers wish to speak, so members have a tight four minutes.
Fair trade is a major success story of our time. The concept goes to the heart of the vision shared by many of us—from all parties—of a world of economic and social justice. People in Scotland can be proud of the role that they have played in taking the idea of fair trade into the mainstream of society. I congratulate Patricia Ferguson on securing the debate and on her recent election as the convener of the cross-party on international development, of which I am the vice-convener. The group is the largest established in the Parliament, which in itself is a sign of Scotland's international outlook and commitment to global solidarity with those most in need.
The basic principle behind the fair trade concept of paying producers in the developing world a social premium, to protect them from the vagaries of the market and to provide a secure and sufficient income, goes back to the formal establishment of the Fairtrade Foundation in 1992 and the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International network. However, it is the hard work of the foundation and the range of charities and non-governmental organisations that support its work that has led to the wide array of Fairtrade goods now available and the increasing level of awareness among the public.
In 2007, sales of Fairtrade goods reached almost £0.5 billion in the United Kingdom. Since 2005, the number of African producer organisations selling to the UK market has almost doubled, going from 81 to 152. More than half of the UK population—about 57 per cent—recognise and understand the Fairtrade mark. That awareness is hugely important because, for many people, contact with the Fairtrade mark and fairly traded goods is the first step on a journey towards greater understanding of the social and economic injustices that leave so many producers and communities in the developing world in poverty. The work of schools, parishes such as St John's in Carluke and towns up and down the country—many in the south of Scotland—to achieve Fairtrade status is testament to the desire of many people to turn their commitment to global justice into action.
To achieve Fairtrade status, communities must be dedicated to change over the long term and willing to change what it means to be consumers in a globalised world. I pay tribute to the work of Scotland's international development sector, in particular Oxfam, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund and Christian Aid, in supporting schools, churches and communities in their efforts to achieve Fairtrade status.
I am aware of the progress that is being made towards Scotland achieving Fairtrade nation status. It is right that we do not rush into that, and I commend the work that has already been done to guide the process. The wider implications for public life and society are immense—every aspect of procurement, consumer and sourcing practices will have to be carefully monitored. Despite all the hard work and achievements of the Fairtrade movement, we are only at the beginning of a journey towards a world where trade justice becomes a reality.
Running the Fairtrade organisations remains the work of committed individuals, backed by civil society and the wider public. They are building and promoting an alternative model of economic development. People in Scotland and throughout the rich world who buy Fairtrade goods make a conscious decision to do so and, by that decision, they recognise that many of the alternative goods that they purchase are unfairly traded.
Multinational companies and rich countries' Governments continue to manipulate the global markets in their interests. Oxfam has summed that up in its report "Rigged Rules and Double Standards". Through economic partnership agreements and the World Trade Organization, the rich world denies developing nations the very protections and producer support that allowed countries such as ours to become rich in the first place—all in the name of the free market.
Many of the organisations that I mentioned earlier, and hundreds more across Scotland, are backers not only of the Fairtrade Foundation but of the trade justice movement, and they were the forces behind the make poverty history campaign in 2005.
I am happy to join my colleagues throughout the chamber in stressing our commitment to the Fairtrade movement.
I am happy to speak in the debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, and I add my congratulations to Patricia Ferguson on securing it.
Fairtrade fortnight has become an important event in the campaign by the Fairtrade movement. I understand that my home town of St Andrews became a Fairtrade town on St Andrew's day 2005. It is perhaps the 12th or 13th town in Scotland to achieve that status. This year's Fairtrade fortnight was bigger and better, with more events than in previous years. The expansion of the availability of Fairtrade products means that Scots now have the option and, increasingly, the inclination, to purchase about 3,000 certified Fairtrade goods. Charities such as Oxfam are now selling scores of Fairtrade food items, as well as craftwork and jewellery, in their Scottish shops. Big stores such as Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury and Debenhams are all developing their Fairtrade cotton businesses. Tate & Lyle, a company with a strong Scottish base, has converted all its sugar to Fairtrade.
As some of us heard at the meeting of the European and External Relations Committee yesterday, although fair trade helps millions of people in the developing world, a wider understanding of trade justice would help millions more. If Africa, east Asia, south Asia and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by 1 per cent, that could lift nearly 130 million people out of poverty.
Here in Scotland, we have little knowledge of procurement in our own country, far less an understanding of the supply chain around the world. There has so far been little analysis of how procurement affects the environment and climate change, and how those factors are likely to impact on the world's poor as a result of the way in which rich nations access goods and markets. As we have heard, Scotland is working towards achieving the full status of a Fairtrade nation, with ethical policies on procurement. Although there are European Union rules on non-discrimination that appear to legislate against fair trade procurement in contracts, many people believe that the Scottish Government has interpreted the EU rules too conservatively. The Department for International Development, among others, has advised:
"There are no legal reasons why public authorities should not include fair and ethical trade criteria into their procurement practices."
It is interesting to note that the National Assembly for Wales has committed itself to providing Fairtrade bananas in all primary schools in Wales. Here in Scotland, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth games could provide an excellent opportunity to ensure that procurement is on a fair and ethical basis.
Particularly important in assessing free trade is the plight of sub-Saharan African countries, which are among the poorest in the world. Tariff barriers and the dumping of subsidised goods on the global markets by the EU, the United States of America and, increasingly, China, Japan and Korea have prevented developing countries from competing on fair terms.
There is certainly much to criticise in the EU's approach, particularly the stance of trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, who seems to argue that only when poor countries open up their economies fully to foreign investment and expertise will they become integrated fully into the world economy. That sounds a bit like an attempted 21st century recolonisation of the third world by Brussels. We in Scotland must use whatever influence we have to help convince Mr Mandelson's bureaucrats that economic theory does not always produce just solutions, especially at this stage in the development of the so-called ACP countries—the 76 former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific with which the EU has failed to finalise a free trade agreement after seven years of wrangling.
Much closer to home, we must ensure that our Parliament's responsible purchasing strategy has positive fair trade objectives in procurement to increase the range of fairly traded products that the Parliament uses. Of course, there is so much to do and so little time. However, the cause is just and as Scotland moves towards Fairtrade nation status, we must certainly keep up the momentum.
I welcome this debate on Fairtrade and wider trade justice issues and congratulate Patricia Ferguson on securing it.
As we have seen in this and previous years, Fairtrade fortnight is a fantastic opportunity to raise further public awareness about fair trade issues in Scotland and around the world. It is a chance to celebrate the power of the individual to shape how our supermarkets, food outlets and high street stores do business and the good will and determination of the people of Scotland and the UK in working towards combating issues of poverty and global injustice. Those efforts continue far beyond the allotted two weeks of Fairtrade fortnight.
I want to widen the debate, as other members have done, because Fairtrade fortnight is also a good way to provoke debate about what more needs to be done and how we can do more to tackle the root causes of poverty, not least those that prevent or hinder developing countries from competing in the world market on an equal footing with their richer neighbours.
Although Fairtrade fortnight celebrates the power of the individual consumer, it is important to recognise the need for Government and the Scottish Parliament to take a lead in addressing these issues both at home and on the world stage.
At home, we must ensure that the essential principles of fair trade, development and justice are major factors throughout all areas of Scottish policy. We need to confront the sticky issue of public procurement to ensure that ethical and sustainable procurement is at the heart of all public service delivery, wherever possible.
Although there has been some uncertainty about the extent to which the Scottish Government is able to include ethical trading requirements in its tendering policies within the prescriptions of EU law, mounting evidence, not least from the House of Commons International Development Select Committee's report last year, suggests that there might be more scope than it first appeared to include social and environmental criteria in future public service procurement contracts.
Moreover, we need greater accountability to ensure that service providers adhere to the international standards that are currently in place. In its bid for the 2012 Olympic games, Madrid put forward tendering proposals for the supply of Fairtrade T-shirts. Perhaps Scotland could develop that idea further to include fair and ethical criteria in its procurement contracts for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth games. That is just one way in which Scotland can do more not only to support the ideals of Fairtrade but to promote more ethical codes of practice in business in Scotland and abroad.
That might be one small step towards addressing some of the larger issues of trade justice on the world stage—the structural and apparently insurmountable inequalities that are embedded in current international trade regulations and procedures.
The continuing controversy surrounding negotiations between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries over economic partnership agreements is a critical example of the ways in which international development aims are so frequently sacrificed to a pro-western mercantile agenda. However, international pressure to liberalise markets to such a degree—and so quickly—might have catastrophic effects on those countries, which could result in unfair and overwhelming competition from technologically advanced, subsidy-maintained European economies and cause further economic insecurity and disempowerment in developing countries.
For example, a study by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa indicated that Zambia could lose up to $15 million in revenues as a result of being forced to lower import tariffs—that is roughly equivalent to its total annual spending on HIV and AIDS. According to the Kenyan Ministry of Trade and Industry, Kenya could lose up to 65 per cent of industry and 12 per cent of Government revenues, which would threaten the livelihoods of millions, especially those in rural areas. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, of which Malawi is a member, could lose up to $0.25 billion dollars in regional trade as a result of the current EPA deals.
If trade is ever to be really fair, Scotland, in partnership with the UK, must put pressure on the European Union and the World Trade Organization to redress those and the many other trade injustices that serve to keep developing countries in crippling poverty.
I congratulate Patricia Ferguson on securing this important debate.
Ted Brocklebank quite rightly made reference to the supermarket companies that are doing a great deal on the fair trade front. I wave this Co-op card aloft quite deliberately because it was the Co-op that led the way in this field, to a great extent, and I want to put on record my praise for all that it has done and continues to do. Indeed, as Patricia Ferguson said, the days of coffee and tea being the only Fairtrade products that are available are long gone. The Fairtrade products that are now available are of an extremely good quality. I admit shyly to the chamber that I am particularly keen on the chocolate, which is some of the very best.
All of us have a role to play, but Ted Brocklebank, Karen Gillon, Roseanna Cunningham and I have a particular role to play through our involvement in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Together, we guard the position of the CPA jealously and protect what we see as this Parliament's right to speak on an equal level with other Commonwealth members. That is why we have said what we have said to the Parliamentary Bureau and others in order to ensure that Scotland is represented at the various get-togethers. Via the CPA, we can further the cause of fair trade.
As Malcolm Chisholm said, through fair trade, we can get rid of some of the inequalities that exist. However, it is fair to say that there are great tracts of land in sub-Saharan Africa that could be tilled but are not because it is simply not worth while for countries to do so because the returns are not good enough. In addressing the inequalities and making it worth while for our brothers and sisters in Africa to supply food to the world, on a fair basis, we can increase the amount of ground that is under cultivation, which will increase the production of food and, in turn, help to tackle the terrible issues such as starvation and poor food that are faced.
I pay tribute to the organisers in my constituency who constantly help on the fair trade front. In the past, the movement has been led by dedicated individuals. In turn, they have rolled the movement out to the younger generation—younger than me.
That is not hard.
The minister says that it is not hard to be younger than me, and I accept her comment.
Often, it is the youngsters in our schools who are aware of the fair trade issue. I take great comfort and draw great hope from that fact.
All of us in Parliament can further roll out what we are saying and the message that we are putting over to the schools. It is a good message, but it can be made stronger still.
There is a good and a bad side to us all. What we are doing on fair trade, not only in Scotland but all over the world, is an example of some of the higher and better motives of human beings.
I thank Patricia Ferguson for giving us this opportunity to mark Fairtrade fortnight with this debate. It is appropriate that we do so, as Scotland has a proud record in the fair trade movement and played a more important role in its origins than is often remembered.
My involvement with Fairtrade fortnight goes back to 1986, when I joined Oxfam as a campaigns organiser. As several members have said, at that time there was really only one product, which was campaign coffee. A few enthusiasts would buy a share in a container of coffee from Tanzania or, latterly, Nicaragua—often in partnership with the Max Havelaar Foundation in Holland—and, incredibly, that coffee would be shipped to a flat in, if I remember correctly, Stockbridge in Edinburgh, where volunteers would pack it by hand before hawking it around any outlet that would take it.
Promoting fairly traded coffee was a centrepiece of Fairtrade fortnight at the time, and I spent many evenings persuading Oxfam campaign groups to ask their local supermarkets to stock it, even if it was only for that fortnight—breaking out into the main stream in such a way was our holy grail. That was a truly thankless task. I well remember the jubilation when our group in Alloa succeeded in talking the local Co-op into taking a small supply. It was trumpeted as a national success—so much so that, a year later, we sent them back to repeat it, only for them to be told not to worry because last year's coffee was still on the shelves.
To have got from that position to today, when Fairtrade sales have reached nearly half a billion pounds in the UK, and one in every four bananas sold in Britain is fairly traded, is astonishing. The key was to commercialise the quality and the presentation of Fairtrade products without compromising the ethical principles behind the idea. Edinburgh-based Equal Exchange was a leader in that field, and it still is.
Cafédirect—the coffee that finally laid to rest the idea that drinking fairly traded coffee was only for those with a strong stomach—led its assault on the coffee trade from Edinburgh. I pay tribute to Lorna Young, Cafédirect's first sales director—her life was cut tragically short in 1996, but her work lives on, and Cafédirect is now the sixth-largest coffee brand of any type in the UK. The Fairtrade mark that she, Equal Exchange, Oxfam and Christian Aid helped to create now endorses more than 3,000 different products.
Aileen Campbell was right to say that Fairtrade still depends on volunteers and their commitment. In my constituency, I pay tribute to the work of the Fairtrade shop in Prestonpans. During Fairtrade fortnight, I went to a very well-attended screening of the documentary "Black Gold", about the global coffee trade, which was organised by Earth Matters, a local Fairtrade shop in North Berwick. As a result, a steering group is now working towards making North Berwick a Fairtrade town.
Patricia Ferguson was right to say that the most important thing in all of this is the benefit that Fairtrade brings to producers. In the case of Cafédirect alone, that means that more than 1.5 million farmers and their families benefit from a fair price and from investment in their communities.
Fairtrade is of course the lever and the example that drives wider trade justice, but I celebrate the fact that a handful of enthusiasts in a basement flat in Stockbridge can take on the market in the world's second most-traded commodity, and bend it to their will. That is the lesson and the promise of the fair trade movement: that there is no supply chain so long that it cannot be bridged; no cartel so closed that it cannot be broken; and no trade that cannot be made fairer by people of good will in the determined pursuit of justice.
I thank Patricia Ferguson for lodging the motion and for securing the debate. Much has changed since the first Fairtrade products started to arrive on our shelves a few decades ago. As Aileen Campbell mentioned, retail sales are now reaching almost half a billion pounds per year, and are growing strongly. Most important, that is making a direct difference to people's lives—to probably around 7 million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America alone.
There have been a number of positive commercial developments from large supermarkets, retail outlets and food producers, and those are all welcome. However, there is still much room for improvement, and there are still some supermarkets and retail outlets that are perhaps more tokenistic about fair trade than others. The Co-op is a good example of an organisation that has a genuine interest and commitment in the area.
I will focus on some of the local initiatives that have taken place in the Lothians. Change comes not just from big commercial organisations, but from local initiatives that promote fair trade and change habits within our communities.
Edinburgh has been a Fairtrade city since 2004, and politicians from all parties, along with the civic communities, have worked hard to make that a success. I pay tribute in particular to the winners of the Edinburgh lord provost's Fairtrade awards for 2008, who offer some fantastic examples of the work that local people are doing on the ground. Ben Miller of the University of Edinburgh won the best youth/education award for his voluntary work to ensure that the university promotes the sale and use of Fairtrade products in its student union and in its shops.
YWCA Lochend won the best Fairtrade community award for a cafe that it launched in 2007. The cafe has quickly become a local hub that is well used by the community and which not only promotes the Fairtrade message and fair trade practices, but gives local residents affordable nutritious meals and refreshments, as well as providing local cooking classes. It is a good example of an initiative that combines a lot of good work.
I pay particular tribute to last year's winner of the lord provost's award—Queensferry fair trade group. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting the group and presenting it with a certificate to mark South Queensferry's success in becoming Scotland's first Fairtrade royal burgh. As has been said, that success was down to the hard work of a core group of dedicated individuals who have worked tirelessly in their own time to promote fair trade and trade justice to communities and local businesses in South Queensferry. Seeing how quickly that work has developed has inspired them. I hope that the recognition of the group through the award and the certificate has inspired it to continue its work and inspired others to take on similar initiatives in other towns and villages throughout Scotland, to prove what can be done.
There have been fantastic examples of schools becoming involved in fair trade work—Jamie Stone referred to that. Roseburn primary school has a link with a cocoa-growing area in Ghana. Its primary 4 pupils study fair trade and focus on chocolate from that area. Currie community high school has links with Kenya and has promoted Fairtrade products from a women's co-operative there. Its students are learning about the direct benefits of that for people on the ground.
The fair trade movement is an inspiration to us all. It proves that collective power from individuals making small changes in their habits can make big differences in the world. The Parliament should definitely encourage the movement.
I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate, which gives me particular pleasure as a Labour and Co-operative Party MSP. I reiterate Jamie Stone's comments about the Co-op, which has been at the forefront of fair trade initiatives for many years. I congratulate Patricia Ferguson on securing the debate. As she said, the debate is at the end of Fairtrade fortnight, but in many ways that is useful because it allows us to celebrate the fortnight's success. Several members have mentioned initiatives in their communities—I will touch on some such initiatives later.
Fair trade is crucial when we consider that 30,000 children under five die every day from preventable diseases. The task that we face is still immense, but fair trade allows us to tackle poverty and to bridge the inequality gap. The importance of working together is summarised in a quotation from Martin Luther King:
"Before you finish eating your breakfast this morning, you've depended on half the world. This is the way our universe is structured … We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact."
The theme of that quotation is that we must work together. Fair trade achieves that across international boundaries—it involves £1.2 billion and 7 million people, as Shirley-Anne Somerville said.
Much work has been done in Scotland and the UK on fair trade. Iain Gray's speech on some of the history of fair trade was interesting and useful. As other members—including Aileen Campbell—said, the UK market for fair trade products is worth nearly £500 million and one in four bananas is fairly traded.
I will give the local perspective from Rutherglen and Cambuslang in my constituency. Ted Brocklebank mentioned that St Andrews had achieved Fairtrade town status. Camglen Fairtrade forum is campaigning in Rutherglen and Cambuslang to achieve Fairtrade status for both towns. A successful campaign has been launched, which has involved several good events in Fairtrade fortnight, including the screening in Rutherglen town hall of the documentary "Black Gold". Stonelaw high school also ran a successful stall in Rutherglen's Main Street on successive Saturdays.
Jamie Stone said that fair trade has been great because it has encouraged many young people to campaign for honourable values. A positive feature of the campaign group in my constituency is its mix of people. Young people, old people, schools, churches, community groups and elected representatives are involved, and people think that a real community spirit exists in a time when it is sometimes felt that the community ideal has been undermined. It is great to be involved in practical action to tackle poverty and injustice.
The objectives of fair trade have been summed up by Nelson Mandela, who said that
"overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life."
Politics is about making a difference. Members recognise that the ideals of fair trade allow us to participate and see real practical differences.
I commend Patricia Ferguson for lodging the motion and I commend the work of the groups in my constituency. The cause endures and the battle continues. We will keep that battle going until we eradicate poverty throughout the world.
I, too, congratulate Patricia Ferguson on securing the debate. I do not want to embarrass her, but having heard her speak at the reception in Parliament and having listened to her thoughtful and knowledgeable comments, nobody can doubt her commitment to fair trade. I also associate myself with various comments that other members—Malcolm Chisholm among them—have made about fair trade being the catalyst for several developments that need to take place in the commercial world.
However, I want to concentrate on two events in which I have been involved during Fairtrade fortnight. The first was a visit to a primary school in my constituency—Linlithgow bridge primary school—which held a coffee morning to highlight Fairtrade fortnight. The children there spoke eloquently about their commitment, why they think fair trade is important and why they want to be involved in it. I agree with Jamie Stone that it is important for our young people to recognise why fair trade is important. The children produced a recipe book of dishes that can be made from various fair trade products, many of which—I say to Mr Gray—were banana based.
This afternoon, we had a debate on development of the curriculum for excellence. It is apt that our young people are using their learning to recognise problems for other people around the world. I was struck by the serious way in which the young people at the coffee morning dealt with fair trade, although that seriousness is not unusual given that they come from Linlithgow, which has for many years had one of the most active fair trade branches and the most active Oxfam branch.
The second event was also a coffee morning, in St Joseph's parish hall in Whitburn. Whitburn has become the most recent Fairtrade town in West Lothian. However, it is one of many, as West Lothian is trying to be the first Fairtrade county in Scotland. There are many others in that competition. At that coffee morning, I was struck by the fact that the fair trade project is led by a host of people from churches and community groups. I think James Kelly mentioned that. Perhaps we see fair trade benefiting people outwith our country, but there is also a benefit to our communities, as it develops community spirit.
The gloom-mongers among us—the Adam Smith Institute is, unfortunately, among them—have said that fair trade is not really making the difference we all expect, but I do not think that is true. We have heard that the fair trade movement has been very successful, but we will have been successful only when we do not need the fair trade banner. In the meantime, we must encourage those who provide goods and services to make them fair trade goods and services and we must encourage customers to buy them.
At today's time for reflection, Tony Benn said that we have the knowledge and skills to provide fairly for everyone in the world. That is true. Fair trade is one way to address the injustices in our world until we use that knowledge and those skills to bring justice to everybody in the world.
I, too, thank Patricia Ferguson for securing this debate on a very important subject. She spoke about the bad perception of fair trade products. Iain Gray gave us more detail of that from his long memory—or perhaps it is his long life. In the first debate that we had in the Parliament on fair trade, which was probably in 2000, members talked about the products being perceived as not that good. It is a mark of how far we have come in such a short time that fair trade products are now regarded as mainstream. Someone—I cannot remember who—mentioned that Tate & Lyle is starting to use fair trade sugar. That, too, is a mark of how far we have come.
Since the first debate in the Parliament, we have seen the growth of Fairtrade towns, Fairtrade villages, Fairtrade universities and Fairtrade schools. I am sorry that George Foulkes is not in the chamber, as this is a subject that is close to his heart. When he was one of the international development ministers at Westminster, he helped me greatly in the move to make Strathaven one of Scotland's first Fairtrade towns, and I thank him for that. Since then, we have had the Fairtrade school movement. I get a buzz every time I think of Sandford school being the first Fairtrade school in the United Kingdom. We now have many Fairtrade schools. Young people are very important in taking the movement forward.
Members have mentioned too many schools for me to address them all in seven minutes, but I will mention three that I was fortunate enough to visit during Fairtrade fortnight. At Whitelees primary school in Cumbernauld, pupils made their own CD from start to finish—they wrote and performed the song, and they are now distributing it. Marvellous stuff. St Elizabeth's primary school in Hamilton managed an amazing fusion of Scottish Highland dancing and Caribbean music, which was a joy to behold.
I also thank Lianne, from Thornlie primary school in Wishaw. It takes an 11-year-old to go on the Lesley Riddoch show and give short shrift to the man from the Adam Smith Institute, which Mary Mulligan mentioned, when he was trying to say that fair trade is not a particularly valuable thing. Of course it is. The fact that trade is fair does not mean that it is not free—the two are not mutually exclusive. Surely anyone with a social conscience or who cares about the world—as, I believe, the vast majority of people do—can help fair trade to move forward.
Although Fairtrade fortnight has passed, now is an apt time for members to discuss what events we attended. As Shirley-Anne Somerville, among others, said, there are people who keep the movement going throughout the year. It is no longer the case that we have to convince stores to stock Fairtrade products just for Fairtrade fortnight; people keep it going all year round. Indeed, even before it became popular, there were people plugging away in the churches, especially through Traidcraft, for many years. It is those folk who have kept the movement going and who have enabled Fairtrade fortnight now to be the focus for moving on for the next year.
As Iain Gray said, the Fairtrade mark can now be found on 3,000-plus products. We have also heard about the Fairtrade Foundation and the fact that the fair trade market in the UK is now worth £500 million. Indeed, it is estimated that 90 per cent of people now recognise the Fairtrade mark on products. Since 2005, the number of African producer organisations that sell to the UK market has almost doubled, to 152. Each of those organisations represents thousands of farmers and workers.
Aileen Campbell mentioned the social premium. Fair trade is not just about the producers; it is also about the schools that are built and the co-ops that are formed in other countries to give a fair deal to workers. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done.
The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to making Scotland one of the world's Fairtrade nations. To drive forward the campaign that the previous Administration started, the Scottish fair trade forum receives from the international development fund core funding of £60,000 per year for three years. In October last year, at the formal launch of the forum, I was delighted to announce further funding of up to £40,000 for this financial year to assist it with more awareness-raising activities, a lot of which took place during Fairtrade fortnight. Real progress has been made since the forum elected its interim board—I hope to have the opportunity to meet its members soon—and I look forward to increased collaboration with the forum and its chair, John McAllion, with a view to building capacity.
I acknowledge that the Fairtrade nation criteria are ambitious, but Fairtrade nation status has to be meaningful. Becoming a Fairtrade nation cannot happen overnight. It is not about being first, or even one of the first; it is about taking on trade justice issues, looking at how procurement can be fairer within government and challenging preconceptions by looking at overseas examples. We are currently considering the findings of the select committee that Malcolm Chisholm mentioned.
I will conclude, although we could all say much more. We have achieved quite a lot, but the fight goes on. As James Kelly said, the battle continues, because this is a wide issue. I know that members of this Parliament and people all over Scotland will continue to support and promote fair trade, as they have done for many years, in Parliament, in the Government, in all our institutions and right across the country, to the benefit of people here and people overseas. Fair trade is all about ending the unfair poverty that producers in developing countries face.
Meeting closed at 17:47.