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 Fair Trade is expanding in Hong Kong reports Myriam Bartu
(reprinted from Positive News magazine)
When did you first hear about Fair Trade? If you live in Hong Kong, chances are it was two years ago when Korean farmers and local activists protested during the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting.
For consumers in Hong Kong in 2005, Fair Trade was more of a theoretical concept. Chocolate, coffee and tea were available from a few shops with a strong ethical mission. However almost everything else that you could buy from developing countries in Hong Kong was inevitably produced by underpaid and overworked farmers and factory workers.
Today, socially responsible consumers have far more options in buying Fair Trade products in Hong Kong. This was well illustrated at the Fair Trade Fair organised by 10 local Fair Trade groups during the World Fair Trade Day held on the May 12 at St John’s Cathedral. These Fair Traders called on Hong Kong consumers, businesses and the government to support Fair Trade and “Buy the Right Thing”.
 Items available at the fair included T-shirts, jeans, baby clothes, underpants, dried fruit, footballs, sugar, salt, rice and handicrafts. Organizers were overwhelmed by the number and enthusiasm of visitors who came to sample and buy products, learn about Fair Trade, play Fair Trade games, take part in a tea ceremony, or listen to Fair Trade stories. The Fair Trade groups plan to make the fair an annual event.
So who are Hong Kong’s new Fair Traders?
Former educators Jo Bryce and Julia Surman have made it their mission to educate the Hong Kong public about how their buying decisions as consumers have a real impact on people’s lives around the world. They founded Xtreme Green, Hong Kong’s first Fair Trade and organic clothing business selling both online and from a shop in Sheung Wan.
Anthony Chiu decided to go into Fair Trade after seeing the impact of unfair trade on the lives of farmers in South America. His organisation, Fair Trade Power, has a shop “Fair Circle” in Jordan, Kowloon, selling speciality items including embroidered bags, cardholders, and greeting cards from farmer associations in rural China and the Philippines. For him the greatest potential for Fair Trade in Hong Kong is the chance to source from China. He regularly travels to meet with producers to support them in developing fair trade practices.
So far there are only a handful of organisations in China which are Fair Trade certified, so there is still much work ahead to encourage and certify Fair Trade practices in the world’s biggest production site.
Yandy Mays, the newest and biggest Fair Trade retailer, has a shop in Mongkok and is also involved in getting Fair Trade started in China. They have just added handicrafts and tea from China to their large range of Fair Trade food, drinks, clothing and even footballs.
To visit Hong Kong’s most original Fair Traders, you will need to travel to the NewTerritories. In the mountains of Sai Kung, Fanny Min Becker, runs Fair-And-Healthy, a home-based business which sells organic and natural goodies such as dried mango, banana chips, virgin coconut oil, sugar and tea. This passionate and devoted Fair Trader was inspired to start her project after she heard the stories of Filipino farmers whom she met while protesting against the WTO.
If you go to Tuen Mun, you will discover Hong Kong’s largest range of fairly traded handicrafts. The Global Handicrafts Marketplace, established by the charity Crossroads, sells goods from about 40 different countries. Here you will find everything from Middle Eastern shawls to Rwandan carvings and an incredible range of handmade dolls from Russia, India, Congo, China and Chile.
Whatever the product you buy, the great thing about Fair Trade is that you can make a positive difference in people’s lives just by shopping!
fair-and-healthy.com
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7 to 11 November
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