What producers around the world say about Fairtrade
[These are all taken from the Fairtrade Foundation's PowerPoint presentation which can be found on the Fairtrade Foundation website. This page has all sorts of useful resources about Fairtrade which you can use in OWW or any time:
http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/fairtrade_fortnight/fairtrade_fortnight_2008/downloadable_resources.aspx
	PowerPoint Presentation for Churches (Select 'Save to disc' when prompted) 
 A PowerPoint presentation for schools can be found at http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/schools/how_to_become_a_fairtrade_school/step_by_step_guide.aspx ]

For Sira, Fairtrade means…A fair and stable price for producers to provide basic necessities for her family
•	100 million rural households around the world are involved in cotton production. In 2002, cotton prices fell to their lowest level for 30 years. As well as competition from synthetic fibres, one major reason for this fall in prices has been the dumping of subsidised cotton on world markets by the US, EU and China. This has had a devastating effect for cotton farmers, particularly those in West Africa.
•	Sira Souko, a cotton producer in Mali, describes how getting a better price for cotton has allowed them to meet the needs of their children. She says 
‘Fairtrade has put money in to the hands of women to meet our children’s needs. We can buy pens and notebooks so they can go to school. We have bought seeds and fertiliser to grow vegetables and improve our family’s diet.’ 
Sira Souko 
Mother and Cotton farmer,
Batimakana, Mali

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For Gerardo, Fairtrade means… Producers are working to protect their environment
In Costa Rica, the Llano Bonito Co-operative has invested in new coffee drying equipment. Gerardo Arias Camacho, a coffee farmer and member of the co-op explains that whereas the old wood fired ovens forced the farmers to cut down trees, the new environmental ovens run using the pulp from coffee cherries and macadamia nut husks and they are encouraging members of the local community to also bring in their own recyclable waste. This means fewer trees are being cut, more of the community are now recycling, and farmers are planting new trees to prevent soil erosion as well as protecting their streams and rivers. 
Gerardo says, “You are helping us in developing countries to have a more dignified life, be able to protect the environment; we are protecting the whole world by protecting the lungs of the world, the forests we have there. You buy our products under Fairtrade terms, and we send you oxygen back. It’s a nice way of doing business.”
Gerardo Arias Camacho, 
Coffee farmer and member of the Llano Bonito Co-operative, 
Costa Rica

For Silver Kasoro, Fairtrade means… 
Extra income to invest in bringing about change for the future

•	As well as Fairtrade price, producer organisations receive a premium that is set aside for farmers and workers to spend on social and environmental projects in the community or to strengthen their organisations. The premium money is put into a separate account, and the farmers and workers decide together how to invest it. 
•	Decisions on how the premium is spent are taken democratically by committees of elected farmers. On larger farms with hired workers, a Joint Body of management and elected workers make these decisions.
Silver Kasoro, is the chairman of the Joint Body for Mbale Growers Tea Factory in Uganda, which decided  to spend the social premium on building a road. "This road gave our community better access to the nearby town which gave us access to facilities and also to the local market. Community members could then diversify into new crops that could be sold at the local market."
Silver Kasoro, 
Chairman of the Joint Body for Mbale Growers Tea Factory,
Mbale, Uganda

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For Jose, 
Fairtrade means… Small farmers have a stronger position in world markets
•	Thousands of families in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean make their living growing bananas on small farms.
•	During the 1990s, small farmers across the Caribbean were under threat from competition from large-scale Latin America banana plantations where labour is cheaper and costs are lower. Organisations of small-scale growers have struggled to sell their bananas at a price that enables them to maintain a livelihood for their families.
•	Through Fairtrade, farmers have been able to improve facilities to meet supermarket quality requirements and maintain market access.
Jose Peralta is President of one co-operative, ASOBANU, in the Dominican Republic. He explains how Fairtrade has helped small farmers meet tough European supermarket rules for selling bananas: “The most important thing for us is to remain in the market. The requirements are many, and we are complying with them. These requirements come from overseas, and we have to comply in order to survive and so that our bananas can continue to be exported. Thanks to the Fairtrade premium, we have been able to improve the quality of our fruit, for example we have repaired many farmers’ packing houses and lots of other improvements. In my life, you know, I never thought that an organisation so important as Fairtrade could exist. For us small producers, we are very committed to Fairtrade, we hope it will continue making progress, it is our means of survival here in the Dominican Republic. We see Fairtrade as being part of a big family – Fairtrade is something we should treasure and protect.”

José Peralta
Banana Grower
ASOBANU, Dominican Republic