Online symposium: Fair Trade responses to Covid-19
Fair Trade is hosting an Online International Symposium on 10 and 11 June 2020: “Fair Trade and resilience in supply chains: insights from the past, perspectives on the future”. Fair Trade movement actors are currently addressing the many short-term direct impacts of Covid-19 and the immediate challenges it is raising for Fair Trade Enterprises and supply chains, namely small farmers and workers. As governments, businesses and civil society call for more resilience in supply chains, these unprecedented events also raise strategic questions about Fair Trade, its value, role and future. The event will consist of four one-hour online panel discussions for Fair Trade producers, practitioners and researchers.
- The crisis in context: Understanding change
- Emergency measures for resilience: Impact and recovery strategies
- Public policies and future systems: Shaping new approaches and agendas
- Identifying new ways of cooperation between researchers and Fair Trade movement practitioners
Guaranteeing organic in Ghana during the pandemic
An IFOAM blog post (Organic Without Boundaries, 28 May) reports that Ghana is currently developing a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), which will enable small-scale organic farmers to assure consumers that their produce is organic. Although still in development, the PGS is already helping organic farmers in Ghana to access markets and increase their sales. The post reports on how, as well as increasing orders, the PGS certificate has proved useful in easing farmers’ movements within the Covid-19 travel restrictions, for example from the farms to Accra, as well as for making deliveries within communities during the lockdown. The PGS certificate can be shown to security forces at checkpoints, making it easier to move around and sell their produce. The report also notes that the increasing demand for organic produce during the lockdown has made organic more appealing to conventional farmers. PGS partners who sell inputs for organic farming (organic fungicides and fertilisers) have noticed an increasing number of conventional farmers using their organic products.
