20 April 2010

Fairtrade Flowers And The Volcano

• Blog,
• ethical,
• Fairtrade,
• Fairtrade blog,
• Fairtrade flowers,
• Fairtrade spices,
• flower,
• roses,
• Steenbergs,
• Steenbergs spices

One of the consequences of the volcanic ash is that food and flowers from the developing world is not being flown in.  Now I don't buy vegetables out of season nor do I buy flowers out of season, but I worry about the impact this flying ban is having on the farmers themselves.  One particular concern I have is for the Fairtrade flower growers in places like Kenya - those gorgeous roses are grown to peak just in time but are now either being picked and trashed or going over on the plant, not good enough for sale.

So I say if you care about Fairtrade, start asking the major retailers what they are doing about it?  Ask them are they compensating the Fairtrade flower growers for trashed flowers?  Are they working with the flower growers to find a solution, eg flying into Spain and then road haul?  Will they pick up any incremental costs or will it be passed onto the consumer, ie the retailer never pays for anything really?

Or is Fairtrade just skin deep for them - we'll (that's Tesco, Sainsbury's, Interflora, Waitrose, Interflora etc) love Fairtrade when its on message for our strategy but stuff it when events get in the way!  I'm asking so why not email, blog, Tweet or whatever you fancy to their PR departments and show you care and so should they.