Farmers and Workers

PEOPLE ARE AT THE HEART OF FAIRTRADE

Choose from a product below to learn more about the challenges faced by farmers and workers in key sectors and how Fairtrade improves things for them.

Did you know that there are over 1.4 million farmers and workers spread across more than 70 countries in the world participating in Fairtrade? If data’s what you are looking for, click here for key stats on Fairtrade farmers, workers, producer organisations and Premium!

Choose a Product to Meet a Farmer

Bananas

Bananas are the favourite fruit in our grocery basket and are grown by millions of small-scale farmers and plantation workers in tropical regions.

Cocoa

Chocolate is one of the world’s favourite foods but growing cocoa is a hard task.

Coffee

Coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages and 80% of it is produced by 25 million smallholders.

Cotton

Cotton is the world’s oldest commercial crop and one of the most important fibre crops in the global textile industry.

Flowers

Whatever the occasion, you can say it with Fairtrade flowers – and it helps thousands of farmers and workers get a better deal.

Sugar

Around 80 per cent of the world’s sugar is derived from sugar cane, grown by millions of small-scale farmers and plantation workers in developing countries.

Tea

Millions of people around the world depend on tea. Tea has grown from being a medicinal crop in China five thousand years ago to a multi-billion pound global industry.

GOLD

An estimated 16 million small scale miners work in dangerous conditions around the world to provide gold that may end up on our high streets. Exploited by some middle men, and forced to handle hazardous chemicals such as mercury, small scale mining is a harsh and precarious way to earn a livelihood that often leaves miners living in poverty.
For more information go to fairgold.org