a message from traidcraft’s chief executive .pptVIP

A message to the Churchfrom Traidcraft’s CEOAndy Biggs We urgently need your help. Because: the worlds poorest small-scale farmers, struggling to feed and support their families, need our help. Because: Our mission for over 35 years has been to practically apply the love and justice which lies at the heart of Christian faith to international trade, and so give the worlds poorest farmers the opportunity to trade fairly and thrive. Because: Traidcraft’s annual accounts 2014-2015 will show a trading loss for the fourth consecutive year. So: Traidcraft is taking this unprecedented step of communicating directly with Church leaders and members, to reinforce the work that we and our supporters have been battling to do. Why? There are two general misconceptions. Misconception No 1: That the Fairtrade job is done. - Fairtrade Marked chocolate, tea, coffee, sugar etc stacked high on our supermarket shelves. - Traidcraft and our supporters can be proud to have helped bring about. - However ... ... it is a myth that the job is done. Injustice in trade and its resultant poverty is as much of a scandal now as it was 35 years ago, and right now were still doing everything we can to tackle it directly. Misconception No 2: Traidcraft and Fairtrade are the same. They are not. - Traidcraft is an independent trading company, with a linked development charity. - We do not benefit from the sales of Fairtrade products in the supermarkets. Traidcraft trades with and supports the most vulnerable farmers and artisans, who could not cope with the demands or scale required by big business or the supermarkets. - We pioneer to bring new commodities into the fair trade arena. - our linked development charity runs projects developing peoples’ potential to trade their own way out of poverty in their own countries; - and we lobby big business and government for fundamental changes to the way trade works so that it benefits the poor. We believe this is the bes