Fairtrade goes mainstream

When I was working for a supermarket food magazine a few years ago we used to judge whether a particular spice blend was mainstream enough for us to use by whether it was made by Masterfoods. Once a favourite Middle Eastern or Moroccan spice made the jump from the shelves of a foodie hang-out such as Herbie's Spices (or more authentically, the shelves of a family-run Turkish grocer in Auburn) to the distinctive yellow and burgundy packaging our food team knew it was safe to start adding it our mix of family favourites, easy ethnic and mod-oz recipes.

I felt the same last week when I read that Cadbury's iconic Dairy Milk chocolate is now Fairtrade Certified.

Companies signed up to the Fairtrade program pledge to pay third-world producers a fair minimum payment regardless of market conditions, protecting farmers from having to sell at a loss, and improve working conditions. Local communities also benefit from funds raised by the program which goes toward projects such as digging wells and building schools, roads and hospitals.

More than 45,000 small-scale cocoa farmers in in Ghana and their families have already benefitted from the Cadbury's switch and worldwide the company hopes to expand this to a million farmers over the next decade.

While the range of Fairtrade products in the UK is extensive, here in Australia it's pretty much limited to sugar, chocolate, coffee and tea, produced by comparatively niche operators. Research released by Fairtrade Labelling Australia and New Zealand has found that sales of Fairtrade Certified products rose by 50% between 2008 and 2009, with a 30% increase in the number of Aussie businesses licensed to trade in Fairtrade Certified products, but to have a product such as Cadbury Fairtrade Certified Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate available in just about every Coles, Woolies, IGA and convenience store in Australia is a huge coup.

From a foodservice point of view though, the use of Fairtrade products isn't mainstream enough (Kylie Kwong's Billy Kwong restaurant here in Sydney is a notable exception). If, as a consumer, this is an issue you care about, then why not let your favourite restaurant know by asking them to use Fairtrade products?


On a totally unrelated note, why is it that a dish that you've made (by which I mean "I've made") 99 times tastes unbelievably better on the 100th go? Surely it's not just practice makes perfect!