Trade winds blow fair

We can see some small evidence of this in our supermarkets, where brands such as Cafe Direct get increasing shelf space. There is much more to fair trading than a jar of freeze-dried coffee, however, and from today an exhibition will run at the Balmore Coach House on the outskirts of Glasgow which demonstrates just how big the fair trade movement has grown, particularly since the inauguration of the Fair Trade Mark nearly five years ago.

Eildon Dyer of Christian Aid, one of the organisations which backs fair-trading ethics around the world, will open the exhibition tonight at 7.30, and it will run daily except Mondays from 11am to 5pm until the end of the month. There will be food tastings, and coffees and teas, and fairly traded foods will be available in the tea- room, while a huge range of coffees, teas, fruits, nuts, honeys, cereals, chocolate, herbs, and crafts will be on sale.

The organisations involved include Traidcraft, Oxfam, Equal Exchange, Tropical Wholefoods, Kitchen Garden, and Clipper Teas, all companies which adhere to the principles of fair trading which give Third World producers the chance to invest in their own future.

Richard Adams, who set up Traidcraft as long ago as 1979, could be forgiven for wondering what took us so long to get the fair-trade message. In fact, in his latest role as a member of the board of the Fair Trade Foundation which licenses the Fair Trade Mark, he is optimistic that things are now moving steadily in the right direction.

Adams has also been involved with an organisation called Shared Interest, which makes loans available to fair-trade companies overseas from this country, and he says there has been an increasing consumer awareness, particularly over the past five years. ''I think that started because there was a concerted campaign by the major development agencies to put fair trade and the related issues of decent wages and fair prices in developing countries high on their campaigning agenda.''

These organisations, including Christian Aid, Sciaf, and Oxfam, have got their own members to lobby the supermarkets directly, asking local managers to stock fair-trade goods. That has resulted in the arrival of brands such as Cafe and Tea Direct, Percol coffees, Myer Gold chocolate, and Clipper Teas going into the major retailers. ''All this has blossomed over the past three years,'' said Adams. ''Prior to that, the only way you could get fair-trade products was through the non-profit outlets such as Traidcraft, Oxfam, and so on. Now that it is in the supermarkets it has got much more exposure.''

The Labour Government's promise when it came into office to adopt a strong attitude on fair trade through both the Foreign Office and the Department of International Development has, in Adams's eyes, also made a significant improvement in this field. ''They have put a huge amount of effort and some serious resources behind encouraging fair trade, so you can actually make some quite positive comment about the Government on international development issues.'' Adams cites the Ethical Trading Initiative, which is just getting under way to create labour standards in developing countries, as part of the Government's positive moves, and its encouragement of mainstream retailers and manufacturers to join the initiative. He is encouraged that, with substantial Government cash backing for such projects, things have speeded up on the fair-trade front.

public knowledge about fair-trade issues still has room to grow enormously. What worries Adams is that as the consumerist rush grows throughout the world, the pressure mounts to keep prices low, with a knock- on effect in relation to fair trading. As long as the developed world does not hit a serious recession, however, Adams remains confident that fair-trade issues will continue to make their mark on the social conscience.

Twenty years ago there was no serious engagement by major companies with such ethical issues. Now there is a sensitivity to image, and companies such as Marks & Spencer and Tesco have successfully defended themselves on issues such as child labour. ''They know they will lose public sympathy,'' Adams says.

Now the task of movers and shakers like Adams is to set standards and criteria so that people cannot make up their own versions of what fair trade is. People can have confidence in those standards and regard the Fair Trade Mark as an equivalent of the British Standard Kite Mark.

What must come next, however, is a greater public awareness. Many people may be aware of the broad issues like child labour, but few are aware of the mechanics of fair trading. The Government, Adams says, has a stake in seeing fair trade work as a strand of its policy because it will get brownie points for it. If the public will wear paying a little bit extra to support fair trading, these are issues where just about everyone can win.

There is now a register of approved producers who have been vetted to ensure they meet certain standards to qualify for the fair-trade labelling. There is a premium for producers who adhere to the fair-trading criteria. Some areas of production, such as bananas and sugar, are still under discussion, and fresh fruit and vegetables are on the agenda.

Adams says: ''An exhibition such as the one at Balmore Coach House raises the issues. The Government is doing something but it has got to know it has the support of the spending public. We are heading in the right direction but all these things take a huge amount of effort and resources to get established in the right way.''