The Fairtrade Foundation has launched a new campaign calling for urgent action to support the 500 million smallholder farmers worldwide including Malawi, who produce 70 percent of the world’s food.
These farmers, the Fairtrade Foundation says, make up half of the world’s hungry people.
The campaign has coincided with Fairtrade Fortnight, currently underway from February 25 to March 10, in UK with a call on the public, businesses and governments to go further in making trade work better for farmers and workers worldwide.
The report to launch the campaign titled, Powering up smallholder farmers to make food fair, says even when smallholder farmers are producing cash crops at the sharp end of lucrative international supply chains, the global food system still fails them.
Fairtrade Foundation chief executive officer Michael Gidney said, in a statement, the recent food exposés have confirmed that the food system is not working for consumers.
“The food system is broken. It is not working for consumers and it is not working for the people who produce our food. We need to get trade into a better, fairer balance, valuing what we buy and who produces it,” said Gidney.
Malawi’s Fairtrade producers and officials from the Malawi Fairtrade Network are taking part in the Fairtrade Fortnight, and the country has been represented by Kasinthula Cane Growers Association, among others.
The country’s Fairtrade producers in Malawi are; Afri-Nut Company Limited, Eastern Outgrowers Trust, FoodSec Consulting, Kasinthula Cane Growers Association, Kawalazi Estate Company Limited, Masfa, Msuwadzi Tea Association, Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union, Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited, Satemwa Tea Estates Limited, Sukambizi Association Trust/Lujeri Tea Estate, Smallholder Tea Growers Trust and new entrants Malawi Tea Company (Mateco) and Makande Tea Estate.
