Traidcraft Bulletin - July

Bulletin

TRAIDCRAFT WEEK SUCCESS

DECAF TEA PROCESS

KILOMBERO RICE AWARD

T R A I D C R A F T S H O P. C O . U K

J U LY 2 0 1 9

Welcome

Dear Friends,

Last month we reinstated Traidcraft Week.

The aim was to give you a moment in the calendar to be able to highlight our work within your communities and to give you a fresh batch of resources to assist you. Thank you to all those who have ordered or downloaded the Traidcraft Week pack. If you have not been able to mark Traidcraft Week this year, please don’t worry.

This year’s theme celebrated our 40th anniversary, so you can use the pack at any point in the year and it will still be relevant.

Shop Traidcraft Week pack > This month, I also got the opportunity to attend the BAFTS conference in Manchester. Jude and I represented Traidcraft at the event and held a chocolate tasting session (tough gig, I know!). I also got to share the journey we had been on the last six months or so. Almost every person in the room had a personal connection with Traidcraft, which had led them to delve deeper into the world of fair trade. It really reminded me of the awesome legacy and heritage we have and what a privilege it is to continually put the principles of fair trade into commercial practice and be able to keep the mission of Traidcraft going forward.

At the end of the month the invites and sign up for the thanksgiving service and AGM at Newcastle Cathedral will be available, giving you plenty of time to book travel and accommodation.

Happy fair trading, Matt 2

We’re thrilled to see so many of you using your Traidcraft Week Packs in schools and churches in your local communities! A special shout out to Jo McGregor of St. Lawrence Church, Alton, who sent us this picture of her bake sale, ahead of Traidcraft Week.

She apologised for the quality of the picture, but the ‘service rush began’ before she could take any more!

That’s what we like to hear! Another mention goes to Barney Forster and his friends, who had lots of fun last weekend doing the kids’ activities in their Traidcraft Week packs!

We’re also excited to share Jan Gordon’s photo of the Traidcraft Week celebrations going on in the wonderful Orkney-based shop, Pretty Little Things, as well as the stunning window display of Just Things in Fair Trade Town, Ilminster, kindly sent in by Leigh-Lin Ning.

Keep up the amazing work everyone!

Don’t forget this year we are 40 so why not keep Traidcraft Week celebrations going all year round.

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Customer Service Department Reminder As from Monday July 1st, due to team training, our Customer Services Department’s working hours will be:

Monday 9-5

(Subject to seasonal changes)

Friday 9-5

Tuesday 9-5 Wednesday 10-5 Thursday 9-5

Chocolate Tasting We know our fair trade goodies like the backs of our hands. However, when our Product Developer, Lizy, gave us the chance to take part in an Eat Your Hat chocolate tasting session, well, it would have been rude not to…

Sarah: “I learnt that when tasting chocolate, you must start with the weakest (least cocoa content) and work your way up. First you smell the chocolate, then put it into your mouth and let the flavours melt into your palate. My favourites were the Organic Dark Chocolate with Turmeric and Black Pepper, and the Organic Milk Chocolate with South African Sea Salt.”

Rio: “The Eat Your Hat Mandarin Orange was a taste sensation, the mandarin oil worked perfectly with the rich dark chocolate, 10/10. Taste testing the Eat Your Hat chocolate range was a journey I didn’t want to end. Starting with milk, working through exciting flavours to 90% cocoa, was best saved for last.”

Welcome to the world, Max! In last month’s bulletin, we wished our lovely Jo well on her maternity leave. A month on, it is with great pleasure that we introduce you to Max Sebastian John Lambert, born 12th June at 12:31pm, weighing 7.2lbs. The next generation of mini Fairtraders is well underway…

Congratulations Jo and her husband, Andrew!

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BAFTS Conference – Update from Jude Last month, Matt and I had a fantastic few days at the British Association of Fair Trade Shops and Suppliers (BAFTS) AGM and conference. It was a truly inspiring and uplifting experience, and so much fun too. It was my first time at the event, and it was a privilege to represent Traidcraft and meet some of our valuable Retail partners.

They work tirelessly, flying the flag for fair trade in the retail world. The BAFTS community is a great one to be a part of, and I loved hearing the inspirational stories of how some fair trade businesses started and how they make a tangible difference in producers’ lives. Thank you to BAFTS and to all of our Retail customers.

Reading International Solidarity Centre Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC).

What a treat! Their retail space, World Shop, is one of the UK’s largest fair trade and ethical shops.

From education projects to a blooming roof garden this place is a hive of wonderful activity.

And the food in the Global Café is super yummy… well it would have been rude not to try it!

Thank you to everyone at RISC for making me feel so welcome. Make sure you pop in if you’re passing Reading. We’ll be back in the autumn for one of our Traidcraft Roadshows. Watch this space for the dates.

Jude Allen

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coffee beans (link), but this is too robust for the fragile, dried tea leaves. Super-critical methods use carbon dioxide, rather than a solvent, which subjects the leaves to extreme temperatures and therefore damages the leaves, flavour qualities and beneficial chemicals.

Decaffeination of Traidcraft Tea On average, around 165 million cups of tea are consumed every day in Britain. For many of us, our morning cup of tea is a ritual that we wouldn’t feel quite right (or awake!) without.

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With Traidcraft’s popular decaffeinated tea, the caffeine is removed from the dried leaves, but vitally, the natural health benefits, the antioxidants and, most-importantly, the flavour, are all preserved. It’s a gentle and carefully controlled process that protects the delicate nature of the tea leaf. We’ve used this tried and tested method for years, so rest assured, you’re in good hands!

How is our Traidcraft Breakfast Blend Decaffeinated Tea decaffeinated?

But for a lot of us, the caffeine that increases alertness and energy is not an option, whether it be due to health or personal preference, which is exactly where our decaffeinated tea comes in.

The simple process uses a solvent called methylene chloride, which is widely used throughout the food industry, for example, in hop extraction in the beer industry or an alternative way to decaffeinate coffee beans.

There are two ways in which caffeine can be extracted from tea; either using a solvent or a super-critical method. The super-critical method is the same as we use in our decaffeination of

During the whole tea decaffeination process, nothing else other than water and solvent touches the tea leaves. At the end of the decaffeination process, the tea leaves have trace amounts of

methylene chloride (5ppm). However, methylene chloride completely evaporates at 40°C, so once you’ve poured in the boiling water to make your cuppa, there’ll be no solvent is left - just delicious tea!

It is important to remember that it is impossible to remove 100% of the caffeine from tea; our method ensures that the final product contains between 0.1 and 0.2% caffeine.

Read more of the stories behind our products on our blog.

READ THE TRAIDCRAFT BLOG >

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Product Update from Lizy Compostable Film Price Changes The journey of Traidcraft continuing involved moving our ‘ingredient’ range into Tropical Wholefoods packaging. Tropical Wholefoods created two new bags to enable Traidcraft to keep the ranges going and also made it more commercially viable because others could also sell this version of Tropical Wholefoods, not just Traidcraft.

As you can imagine we all have a very long to do list, on that to do list was a price review of the Tropical Wholefoods range. We have put some prices up and I think one has even gone down, the most notable are the cashews and walnuts; there was a cost increase last year, however the RRP price was not put up last year.

After review we either had to put the price up or no longer list the product, and we wanted to continue selling these wonderful ingredients and snacks.

Granola Box Update We have run out of packaging!

The team are working away to bring back the granola in line with the Traidcraft brand, meaning it will no longer be GEO CRUNCH, but Traidcraft granola. We hope to also bring the muesli into the Traidcraft packaging in Spring 2020.

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Traidcraft currently uses a compostable film called NatureFlex in Eat Your Hat Chocolate and the Traidcraft chocolate. The idea is that by using a bio-film like NatureFlex we are helping to reduce greenhouses gas emissions by diverting organic waste from landfill. The base material is cellulose, derived from renewable wood pulp from sustainably managed forests. As with any material that is used, there are advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages •

The production of plastic is in itself incredibly polluting, so using NatureFlex not only uses natural products which turn back into natural products (cyclical economy at its best), but it avoids creating an inorganic substance in the first place which then cannot decompose

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Resistant to oil, greases, gases/aromas, UV/visible light

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You can add your artwork onto the material

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Made from renewable wood pulp

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Compost enhances the soil quality

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Does not ‘leak’ into the ecosystems like plastic

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Home compostable within 12-16 weeks

The NatureFlex base material is cellulose, derived from renewable wood pulp from sustainably managed forests.

Disadvantages •

Consumers may think it is plastic and put in the recycling and contaminate the plastic recycling process

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NatureFlex once creased stays creased – doesn’t look great

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More expensive than plastic

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The Eat Your Hat NatureFlex used still contains a minimal amount of PVdC (a clear and flexible synthetic thermoplastic) and also a metallised layer – the final material is lamination of different layers

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Material could compost or degrade in storage

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Production of alternative materials to plastics in total require more production energy

Compostable film is not the answer to saving the planet and the marine life, however, instead of a piece of plastic sat in landfill for many, many years, the material has been turned into organic waste and put back into the soil.

There are many things we can all be doing in our day to day lives to help reduce global warming.

For example, less energy is required to listen to music on a MP3 compared to playing a portable CD player and instead of using a film analogue camera we now use a digital camera with a SD card which requires less energy.

Yes, these changes happened quite a few years ago now but we can keep doing more. How can we use less throughout our lives? Material manufactures will continue to come up with solutions, but so do we and so do the councils who have control over the recycling.

Use this link to find out where you can recycle! https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling 9

Update from Robin

When I first started at Traidcraft three years ago, I talked to several Fairtrade leaders about the need for organic farming to be a part of our mission and I was bemused by their reactions. The most common were, “Organic farming? – There’s no health benefit to consumers.”

And “British consumers will never buy that story. Organic food is a middle-class, niche market.”

To say that I was non-plussed is an understatement, but I have slowly come to understand how organic farming, with all of its extraordinary benefits for farmers and planet, has been so wildly misrepresented in the UK that it seemed to exist in the no man’s land between witchcraft and straight out crazy.

And now, three years later, quite suddenly everyone is talking about plastic, pollution, climate crisis, ocean degradation and fossil fuel dependency. And equally, people are also finally taking about biodiversity, organic and bi-dynamic farming, re-forestation and the circular economy as possible antidotes.

This debate is hugely overdue, but it can also seem a bit overwhelming.

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Quite what am I supposed to do as an individual in this sea of sudden information about the climate?

Well, on the one hand there is every cause to panic. As Greta Thurnberg, the remarkable, 16-year-old girl from Sweden, whose solitary school strike has turned into an international movement, said recently when she was visiting the European Parliament; “I want you to panic….. I want you to act as if the house was on fire. I have said those words before and a lot of people have explained why that is a bad idea.….

A great number of politicians have told me that panic never leads to anything good and I agree. To panic, unless you have to, is a terrible idea. But when your house is on fire and you want to keep your house from burning to the ground, then that does require some level of panic.”

On the other hand, just panicking doesn’t lead us to a solution, and it is imperative that we all find one.

‘Panicking doesn’t lead us to a solution, and it is imperative that we all find one.’

The science behind climate change is not disputed (99.5% of all research scientists are in alignment) but it is frequently denied. Science denying will get us nowhere, of course, and scaremongering even less. What we need is a clear-eyed understanding of what we can all do as individuals and as communities.

At Traidcraft, we are thinking through what it would mean to become a 1.5°C company (1.5 degrees of warming above industrial levels is what we can still achieve without irreparably harming the ecosystems that we depend on for life – we are already at 1.1°C and rising). The answers are all small ones, but taken together they make big differences:  eating less meat  eating more vegetables  eating more local food  travelling less by car and plane.

These are not huge sacrifices, but they are conscious decisions.

In recent weeks we have been talking a lot about transparency, and you may be wondering why the theme is suddenly all about the climate?

Well, the food industry is fantastically, almost sublimely intransparent. The less you know about where your food comes from, the more corners can be cut, and the more profit can be extracted from the farmers at the start of the chain. It’s time to be honest about the food we eat and what it costs the earth. Global food production is responsible for 30% of all greenhouse gases, and the single major cause

‘Global food production is responsible for 30% of all greenhouse gases.’ of deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution and chemical pollution. A significant element of this is a consequence of mass rearing of livestock (less meat is good for you and the planet) and the use of chemical fertilisers (this topic is huge, and is worth another bulletin article in itself).

By supporting small scale organic farmers who recycle their own waste products into healthy compost and who do not spray their land with excessive Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium (NPK farming), you are genuinely supporting heroes who are fighting climate change. “A middle class niche?”, “Of no benefit to the consumer?”

Or perhaps an essential survival strategy for the planet?

Traidcraft has been working for decades to support small scale, sustainable and organic farming practice. We have even pioneered compostable packaging in the UK in our Eat Your Hat range (also on special offer this month, so treat yourself and stick some additional fingers up at the hugely exploitative confectionary market). We know where our priorities are, we know where our food comes from and we are invested in protecting the precious communities we work with and we acknowledge their (and our) debt to the land.

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meet the people tours

Another award for Malawi’s Kilombero Kilombero Rice Voted top of The Ethical Consumer Magazine’s review of the most ethical rice on the market.

Both white and brown Kilombero rice have won Great Taste Awards and they have just added another award as they have come top of The Ethical Consumer Magazine’s review of the most ethical rice on the market.

This is great news for all of the farmers of Kilombero Rice, and great news for us as we can be as assured of it benefits for farmers as we are by its delicious taste.

The farmers of the Karonga region in Malawi are welcoming hosts of our Meet the People Tour 12

and eagerly take us behind the scenes for an insight not only into the production of the rice but also to see the benefits the sales are bringing to their community.

Koronga Lizzie joined our group for the first tour in 2016 and tells us a little more about a typical day in Karonga: Our day began sitting together beneath a mango tree for an introduction from Lawrence to KASFA and their work with farmers in the region.

We then headed out to a local school. In this region many families struggle to send their children to school, with many dropping out in the more challenging months of the year so it was important for KASFA to explain to us that the fair price paid for their rice is making schooling accessible for farming families and funding scholarships for children in the community.

‘the fair price paid for their rice is making schooling accessible for farming families’

We then headed to the fields to join the rice harvest where simple methods are used to hand-thresh the rice in the field before the huge sacks of rice are brought to communal weighing stations. We were also shown the ox-carts, told about the training schemes and met some of the women benefiting from their schemes to enable female farmers reach their potential.

That evening, eating al fresco on the shores of Lake Malawi we all indulged in the locally prepared Kilombero rice. A speciality grain known for its quality and taste, locals were keen to explain that it’s traditionally served at celebrations throughout Malawi and this was indeed a celebration as we talked through all that we had seen during our visit.

With this latest news, it will of course be with another delicious bowl of Kilombero Rice that we’ll mark the celebrations as we recall great memories of Malawi.

Email: info@skedaddle.com Call: 0191 2651110 For more information visit: www.meetthepeopletours.co.uk/SouthAfrica 13

Big change, the kind that transforms lives, happens when many people take many small steps together.

This July, Traidcraft Exchange is delighted to launch Small Steps – a change-making community of people like you, dedicated to supporting farmers, workers and artisans on their journey to a better life.

Don’t sit on your hands

Nothing about Brexit is certain, but at the moment, the UK is due to leave the European Union on 31st October 2019. That means the new MEPs elected in May will lose their seats in the European Parliament on the same day.

So we’re asking them to do 4 things in the 4 months before they go to make trade fairer for people in developing countries.

Find out more at: www.traidcraft.org.uk

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People in the Small Steps community have committed to giving a small sum each month so that people over the world can get a better deal from the hard work they do every day – not just today, but every day.

We’d love you to join us on our shared journey!

Get in touch today to learn more: Call: 0191 497 6445 Email: hello@traidcraft.org Visit: www.traidcraft.org.uk

Appeal

Millions of people around the world have all the talent, drive and determination it takes to run a successful business – but lack the opportunity to do so.

These people are Hidden Entrepreneurs, and last year, your generous donations to our appeal were matched pound-for-pound by the UK Government, bringing the total to almost £1.1 million – a truly amazing result!

We really can’t thank you enough for your support.

With the money raised, we have just started a brand-new venture supporting farmers in Meru County, Kenya to run their farms as successful businesses.

Misheck’s story Misheck and his wife Lucy work hard on their potato farm to support their three children to go to school and university.

“I decided to get involved because of what Traidcraft Exchange could teach us about farming, especially potatoes. We are hoping that we will have a good harvest and be able to save some money.

We had training on how to store potatoes properly so as to sell them when the market price is best – just one month ago the price was 2,500 Kenyan shillings per bag, but now, it has risen to 3,000.

If you organise yourselves, you have bargaining power... as we learned from [the new project], we are now getting into groups. When people are together, they can speak with one tongue.”

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Q&A with Rachel Kelly

With a motto of ‘Wear Me, Love Me, Mend Me, Pass Me On’, Thought are all about opening up the conversation about sustainable fashion, and aim to educate people about the small steps they can take in order to make a difference.

We caught up with Rachel Kelly, co-founder of Thought Clothing, to talk all things slow, ethical fashion and find out a little bit more about this forward-thinking and innovative brand.

was selling to the business that I worked for. John decided to come and try his luck selling sustainable clothing in the UK and I happened to be travelling at the same time.

When I had run out of money and made my way back to London, I began working for John in his first shop in Portobello. It was so much fun! We had so much energy and passion to grow the business and we slowly started to find our feet in this huge city, as we slowly developed our business.

We wanted to create clothes that

Thought Clothing are acutely aware that living a sustainable lifestyle is no easy feat! To a consumer simply dipping their toes into the world of sustainable fashion, it can be quite overwhelming and intimidating, which is why Thought want to simplify the process.

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When was Thought would become our customers’ wardrobe staples, and our motto set up and what is a reminder to look after what was your founding we own. ethos?

Has your ethos My husband and I are both from Australia but have happily lived in changed over time?

London now for about 16 years.

We met in the industry back home. John was already leading the way and making Hemp shirts in Australia, while I was a junior buyer. I met him when he

I think we’ve done a good job at sticking to our founding ethos, but adding that we are always learning and evolving as a company.

How is Thought unique on the market?

Our force of nature fabrics are a huge part of what makes us unique; this refers to our sustainable fabrics made using materials such as Organic Cotton, Bamboo and Tencel. Also, our prints are commissioned and created exclusively for us, which makes them really special.

clothing brand. We have a passionate design team who consider countless silhouettes, colours and prints. They do this to craft contemporary, sustainable clothing. Key pieces that are effortless in style, flattering in fit. Pieces are designed to become classics you’ll return to time and again.

When you’re shopping for clothes, what How do you choose do you look for?

I love clothes and fashion but the products in having been in the sustainable your range? clothing industry for so long As we are all about slow, ethical fashion, it’s definitely a longer process than your average

now, I am really careful about where I put my money. Besides organic and sustainable fabrics,

I look for items that I know I will wear again and again. Running a fashion brand definitely makes it easier, I wear a lot of samples!

What is your most popular / hero product?

There are so many! I would love to create an archive of our most loved, iconic pieces. Our bamboo Dashka slacks are a wardrobe staple for many of our loyal customers. Our Sail La Vie cotton knit has been reinvented for the past eight seasons now.

I also think our printed skirts are very iconic, they are super popular because they look stunning and have pockets!

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Does Thought do anything for the environment?

We try to look at each step of the lifecycle of creating a garment up until we deliver that garment to our customer. Whether that is how we use paper in our office, to how we ship our goods, to what fabrics we use in our collections, to what styles we design — we are looking to do it in a thoughtful way. Minimising our footprint, being thoughtful of how we produce our clothing, and designing long lasting slow fashion styles that our customers will love and cherish for years to come — all form the foundations of how we want to do business.

Are there any particular challenges in your market?

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Making sure we create clothes that are good to the Earth, but also that will make our customers look and feel good.

We could all wear organic cotton sacks every day if we wanted to go completely sustainable, but clothing and fashion is an art form and a method of selfexpression. Balancing the ethics of fashion whilst making people feel confident is always at the forefront of what we do.

What are Thought’s hopes for the future?

We want to be a leading light as a positive change maker. To showcase to other business that you can grow a strong and profitable business while being value driven.

What does fair trade mean to you?

Fair trade to me means acting in as human a way as possible.

To have empathy and kindness at the forefront of your decision making process. For us, this means from our supply chain right through to our relationships here with our team.

If you could summarise Thought in three words, what would they be?

Thoughtful, creative, enduring.

We have dozens of brand-new Thought pieces coming in for our AW19 collection, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled!

SHOP THOUGHT >

30%

Short Shelf Life Products

OFF

30% OFF

Eat Your Hat Organic Milk Chocolate with South African Sea Salt

Eat Your Hat Organic Milk Chocolate with Sri Lankan Cardamom

63706 (91g) SINGLE WAS £3.95 NOW £2.76

58102 (91g) SINGLE WAS £3.95 NOW £2.76

32964 (10x91g) CASE WAS £35.50 NOW £24.85

37186 (10x91g) CASE WAS £35.50 NOW £24.85

Best before: 31/07/2019

Best before: 31/07/2019

30%

30%

OFF

OFF

Eat Your Hat Organic 38% Milk Chocolate

Eat Your Hat Ultimate Gift Set 27010 WAS £45 NOW £31.50

57290 (91g) SINGLE WAS £3.95 NOW £2.76 48534 (10x91g) CASE WAS £35.50 NOW £24.85 Best before: 31/07/2019 19

Zaytoun Maftoul Salad If you’re looking for a light lunch, impressive starter or side dish, why not try Zaytoun’s wonderful maftoul salad recipe?

Vegetarian  Highly nutritious  Fair Trade  Using traditional Palestinian ingredients, this dish will bring a touch of Western Asia to your table top.

Can be served warm or cold.

Ingredients

(Serves 4 as a side dish) •

250g Zaytoun maftoul

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5 tbsp Zaytoun olive oil

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75g raisins

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1 onion, diced

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1 small bunch spring onions, sliced thinly

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1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped

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1 fresh chilli pepper, sliced thinly

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1 lemon, juiced

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1 tsp sea salt

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1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

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1 tsp Zaytoun za’atar

A big thank you to Traidcraft’s Jude who made this Zaytoun recipe at home and sent us a mouth-watering picture of the dish!

Method Add 1 tbsp salt to 1 litre of water and bring to the boil.

Toast maftoul in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for 4 minutes on medium-high heat.

Add toasted maftoul to the boiling water and let it simmer for 12 minutes.

At the same time add 250ml hot water to the raisins and simmer in a pot for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool then drain.

Sauté onions in 1 tbsp of olive oil, and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the maftoul, raisins, both kinds of onions, parsley, chilli, za’atar, lemon juice, and 2 tbsp olive oil and mix, seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

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