Christian Aid’s been campaigning for fair trade since 1992. That’s when we helped set up the Fairtrade Foundation and began pestering supermarkets to stock products that promise their growers a decent deal.
And we've found that, once you've got a taste for Fairtrade, you're always hungry for more.
Fairtrade Fortnight: 22 February - 7 March
Take part in the Big Swap this Fairtrade Fortnight 2010!
It's all about getting people to swap their usual groceries for Fairtrade stuff.
Visit the Big Swap website where you can download posters, action guides and snap up great merchandise (including giant inflatable tea mugs!), plus find out about events and register your swap.
The aim is to reach 1,000,001 swaps, so get swapping now!
Fairtrade Fortnight The Big Swap
Making trade fair for all
Fair trade is a great way of using markets to tackle poverty – at least for communities who benefit directly.
Our economic justice campaign is about making sure trade and financial systems work for everyone.
Take action now!
The Big Tax Return Demand an end to tax dodging that costs poor countries $160bn a year
Divine inspiration
Divine’s Chocolate's amazing success story demonstrates the power of trade to alleviate poverty.
More about Divine and Christian Aid
Divine Chocolate, the only Fairtrade chocolate company co-owned by cocoa farmers, is delighted to announce that now, for the first time chocolate lovers can taste Fairtrade cocoa from Sierra Leone in all its products. Sierra Leone has been ravaged by a brutal and disruptive civil war for over 10 years, which ended eight years ago. This first Fairtrade shipment of cocoa out of the country is a sign of hope that the fortunes and prospects of the country’s farmers can be turned around.
Read more about this news
Full of beans
Fairtrade has been a major boost for the people of Jinotega, one of the poorest areas of Nicaragua, where our partner Soppexcca is helping coffee farming communities thrive.
View our slideshow
Fairtrade shopping list
Chocolate
Divine (obviously) | Cadbury | Green & Blacks' Maya Gold | The Co-op | Artisan du Chocolat | Choc-affair
Tea
Clipper teas | Teadirect | Traidcraft tea
Coffee
Cafedirect | The Co-op | Abel and Cole
Wine
Traidcraft | Threshers | Marks and Spencers
Clothing
Traidcraft clothing | Ethical Threads | People Tree
Fairtrade facts
One in four bananas we eat in the UK is fairly traded.
We drink more than 8 million Fairtrade hot drinks a day.
Fairtrade cotton sales rose an astonishing 660% in 2007.
British shoppers spent an estimated £493m on Fairtrade products in 2007. This figure has doubled every year.
The first fair-trade label, formed in the Netherlands in 1988, was named Max Havelaar after a character from Dutch fiction who stood against the exploitation of coffee growers.