Fairtrade Africa’s Be Fair Right Now campaign launches in the second week of November, with an important message for Mzansi: now isn’t the time for fairness. Right now, the focus is on fair wages, worker dignity, and environmental sustainability. It’s never been simpler for consumers to choose fairness or for businesses to join forces with Fairtrade.
The Be Fair Right Now campaign will continue until January 20, 2023. At its heart is a fun quiz that introduces customers to the people who make their morning coffee or evening glass of wine. Users who complete the quiz and sign up for the Fairtrade Africa mailing list are entered to win incredible prizes (think: a luxury Fairtrade experience in the Winelands, among others).
Fairtrade Africa will host a stakeholder brunch on November 9, 2022, where manufacturers, producers, and brands will gather to learn more about Fairtrade’s impact and Offer to Business. More information can be found at the end of this article.
In short, the campaign is an opportunity for consumers and businesses to connect with the people behind the products we love, produce, or sell, and to start choosing fairness for everyone involved, in addition to giving loadshedding-weary South Africans a chance to win some amazing prizes.
About Fairtrade
The Fairtrade label is the world’s most trusted ethical certification. Seeing the Fairtrade Mark on a product tells consumers that the product’s producers have met a set of stringent international standards.
Essentially, purchasing a product bearing this Mark means that you are supporting workers’ rights, promoting gender equality, combating child labour, prioritising fair pay, and supporting environmentally friendly farming practises. Furthermore, it entails contributing to the Fairtrade Premium, which is a sum of money above and beyond the Fairtrade price that is put into a communal fund for workers and farmers to use as they see fit to improve their social, economic, and environmental conditions.
Fairness is beneficial to business.
Consumers are more interested than ever before in the backstory of the products they purchase. According to a 2020 Mastercard survey, 98% of South African adults are willing to take personal action to address environmental and sustainability issues. The data is clear: consumers are concerned about issues such as fair wages, environmental practises, and human rights. Partnering with Fairtrade is an effective way to prioritise the lives of farmers and workers in your supply chain while making tangible progress toward your UN SDG targets and strengthening your relationship with customers.
This year, CyberCellar, a South African online spirits retailer, strengthened its brand focus on sustainability by adding a Fairtrade category to its “Conscious Wines” selection. This is a fair step forward and a bold message for South African consumers and businesses alike: Fairtrade is a category with the same weight as “Local is Lekker,” “Vegan,” “Biodynamic,” and “Organic.
By joining other household names in a Fairtrade partnership, such as Woolworths, Faithful to Nature, and Bean There, CyberCellar reinforces the message that fairness isn’t complicated, and that respect for people and the environment is inextricably linked to profit-driven goals.
Andrew Douglas, Group Managing Director of Southern Skies (Parent company to CyberCellar), shared, “Fairtrade’s focus on people and planet suits the CyberCellar ethos perfectly. Enjoying a sip of well-crafted wine and knowing that everyone involved in the making of it was treated fairly and with dignity, and resting assured that the Earth was protected in the process – that’s just an unbeatable feeling.”
