Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80
- 82)
TUESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2007
MS SANDRA
TAYLOR, MR
CLIFF BURROWS
AND MR
MIKE BARRY
Q80 Chairman: One matter that we
are trying to get to the bottom of is the extent to which this
expanding market—everybody who has spoken to us says and
the figures bear out that the consumer is responding—is
nevertheless a niche market and it is one which makes a significant
but small number of people feel better, or can it really make
a contribution to redressing the balance? The Prime Minister of
Dominica made a passionate plea at the end of his evidence for
a fair development-oriented trade deal which this Committee endorses,
but can fair trade really make a significant difference to the
balance? Can it help to iron out the inequalities of the trade
system? Is it a way to give poor people in poor countries a real
opportunity to take control of markets in a way which helps them
get out of poverty?
Mr Barry: We believe that it is.
If you look at the work that Sainsbury and Waitrose have done
with bananas and M&S with coffee, tea and cotton it can be
shown that in a very competitive market-place it can become mainstream.
These are huge parts of our business. The sale of 12 million T-shirts
at £5 each is a £60 million business. I am sure that
Sainsbury's banana business is equally large, if not larger. These
are decisions taken by businesses that are under tremendous commercial
pressure. We believe that it is the right thing to do. Will it
happen with every single range we sell? It will not because we
do not buy all our raw materials from the developing world. We
need models by which we work with British farmers, as we have;
we need models by which we can source other material such as wood
and fish where predominantly the issues are to do with the environment
rather than social matters. But in terms of addressing the crucial
raw materials in retail products that come from the developing
world we believe there is nothing to stop the fair trade market
expanding very significantly in future.
Q81 Chairman: We produced a report
on private sector development and we were scratching our heads
as to how we could kick start it. Maybe this is the best way to
do it. DFID did not seem to know how to do that, but maybe it
could do more here. What does Starbucks think?
Ms Taylor: Starbucks believes
that fair trade is making and can make a significant contribution
to poverty reduction. For Starbucks it is part of an integrated
approach. We are also investing in loans that are made available
to farmers and suppliers to invest in equipment and make it from
one harvest to the next so they are not forced to sell their produce
in advance at a lower price. It is also part of our social investment
in schools and community programmes in addition to the work that
we are doing in capacity-building to help our suppliers and farmers
improve quality so their products get a higher price in the market-place.
This goes beyond small producers and includes large producers
as well. We believe that this integrated approach will make a
major difference to the alleviation of poverty in communities
where we buy coffee.
Q82 Joan Ruddock: Does Marks &
Spencer make any purchases in China?
Mr Barry: We cannot get Fairtrade
from China, although obviously we buy lots of product from that
country. But all the factories there are covered by the Ethical
Trading Initiative, so it is a different tool to solve a different
challenge where the Fairtrade Foundation cannot necessarily go
at this time.
Chairman: I thank both sets of witnesses.
Given that this is Fairtrade Fortnight and the first evidence
session we have had on the topic, you have given us some very
positive messages both about what is happening and what the potential
is. I hope that as we proceed with our inquiry we are able to
build on those. This Committee is interested in what works to
reduce poverty and clearly if this works we should do more of
it. Thank you very much for coming along.
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