Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand has recently released figures showing that, in 2015, the two countries had spent NZ$368 million on Fairtrade-certified products. All purchases were made from 52 licensees and traders in NZ, and 192 in Australia.
Products included Fairtrade chocolate (57 million 200g blocks), coffee (371 million cups) and tea bags (182 million).
“Every single time a shopper makes the decision to buy Fairtrade, they make a decision to support the workers behind that item with fair prices and brighter futures,” said Molly Harriss Olson, CEO of Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand. “It is wonderful to see the thoughtful shopping of New Zealanders and Australians translate directly into profound impacts on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.”
A new Fairtrade project run in conjunction with CARE International focused on gender inequality, while another pilot program aimed to increase the entrepreneurial abilities of 6000 farmers in Papua New Guinea.
Overall, there are over 1.6 million farmers and workers in 1,240 Fairtrade Producer Organisations across 75 countries benefitting from fair prices and improved terms of trade.
