For a pack of roasted coffee to be on the supermarket shelf, a lot of people have to do a lot of work in front of it. For example, picking coffee cherries, peeling fruit, roasting and packing beans, shipping them, driving them out and then sorting them in the supermarket.
And the deeper the task to be done lies in the Global South, the worse it is paid: Mostly because this part of the world is economically disadvantaged, having often been exploited under colonialism.
For the participants of the “Fair Trade Summit”, which has been taking place in Wedding since Tuesday, it shouldn’t stay that way. They find this unfair, are often involved in the coffee supply chain themselves and are therefore coming together for the largest gathering of fair trade companies in the world.
The conference will be held in Silent Green, an old crematorium in Wedding that is now a cultural venue. The event includes a fair trade market selling toiletry bags from Cambodia, wooden spoons from Turkey and condiments from South Africa. Many of those present wear brightly colored clothing, large jewelry and trekking backpacks.
A total of 450 participants came. 330 from abroad. Many have come from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia or India. However, several tons of CO2 are emitted in this way. They could have been avoided if the event had been held digitally.
Katrin Frank from the Forum Fairer Handel sees things differently: “Of course it’s not ecologically sustainable when people fly here, but after more than two years of the pandemic, it’s just important to see each other in person again.”
Frank hopes that the networking of the different supply chain actors will lead to ideas that in turn will have a lasting effect in the countries of origin. The last conference took place in Lima, Peru, in 2019.
The aim of the meeting is to clarify internal community questions. For example, how to deal with the fact that fair trade suddenly becomes mainstream and every discounter puts supposedly fairly produced goods on the shelf – or how to present yourself as a fair trade producer on Instagram. In addition, trading partnerships are to be concluded. “This is a bit like a fair trade class reunion,” says Frank.
And attention should also be generated. About half of the participants met on Tuesday of this week for a protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate. They pushed a chain of shopping trolleys around Pariser Platz.
Posters were attached to one side of the wagons, describing the state of the current production conditions: “Forced Labor and Modern Slavery” is written on one, and on the other: “Hire and Fire Mentality”.
On the other side of the car, the conditions were formulated as they should be: “Self-determined life for everyone” and “Protection against dismissal”. As the group chorused at the climax of the event, “Change the chain, all trade should be fair,” a few selfie-taking tourists glanced up from their smartphones.
