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NEWS:
Sep 08: check out our latest vacancy
Mar 08: Goosemoor wins Best Green Business award!
Mar 08: Goosemoor is the only Yorkshire supplier in Times
Top 35!
Feb 08: check out Where
does the produce come from?
Jan 08: What is the
difference between Organic eggs and Free-Range?
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People
first? or the planet?
 It used to be something of a dilemma knowing whether to
buy Organic or Fairtrade, but now the dilemma is resolved – you can have
both! However Fairtrade foods do cost more, so we want to explain why we
believe they are worth buying…..
Principles
of Fairtrade
Why
should we buy Fairtrade?
- Fairtrade supports small-scale farmers, as well as
workers on plantations
- Fairtrade empowers farmers, improves their standard of
living, and provides added protection for the environment
- Fairtrade fits closely with organic standards, but
puts the focus on the producers, rather than on the method of production
Fairtrade
production conditions:
- Farmers’ cooperatives must operate democratically
- Employed workers must be able to join a trade union
- Workers earn decent wages, and live in decent
housing
- Child and forced labour is prohibited
- Environmental sustainability has to be planned for
Fairtrade
terms of trading:
- The price must cover the cost of production
- A social premium is used by the producer to improve
living and working conditions
- Advance payments are made to avoid small producer
organisations falling into debt
- Contracts are made to allow long-term planning
- Buyers agree to bear a minimum of 2% wastage to
avoid the whole cost of rejected fruit being passed back to the grower
How
is Fairtrade verified?
-
Producers prepare an annual work plan, and must provide
access to minutes of meetings, auditors and accountants’ reports, as well as
testimonies of members, in order to prove compliance with the Fairtrade
standards
What foods are available that are both organic and Fairtrade?
Fresh Produce
 Bananas - we now have a
reliable supply of Fairtrade organic bananas.
Consequently we see no justification for selling non-fairtrade bananas and
we have delisted them, even though they were cheaper to buy
 Mangoes
- supply has been a little erratic, and we have had some quality problems
with Haden mangoes from Peru, which led us to revert to non-fairtrade pending resolution of the
difficulties. Fortunately, we have since procured
some good quality Kent mangoes from Peru, but the supply has not yet proved
to be reliable
- Oranges
& grapes are starting to become available from South Africa, but the
premium is significant, and availability is limited
Groceries
Lots of our
groceries are not just organic but also fairly-traded, and carry both
the FAIRTRADE Mark and the Soil Association Symbol. These include:
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Green
& Black's Maya gold chocolate and cocoa powder
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Equal
Exchange coffee, honey, tea and cocoa
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Cafedirect
coffee and tea
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Percol
coffee
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Traidcraft
sugar, and brazil nut & choc-chip cookies
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Doves
Farm flapjacks and cereal bars
Please
contact us if you would like a copy of our Popu-List
(which covers our most popular Grocery lines), or alternatively we
can provide a version listing only the Fairtrade items
Is there any UK-grown produce which is Fairtrade?
- UK-grown fairtrade produce is becoming more widely available, since the Soil Association
introduced its Ethical Trade certification. The Ethical Organic
scheme scrutinises trading relationships, ensuring that pricing is fair, and
that social and cultural opportunities exist for workers and communities
involved in the supply chain. Doves Farm for example now produce
Wholewheat breakfast cereal biscuits which are both organic, and Ethically
Traded
See Fairtrade Foundation and Soil
Association for more
details
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