Ask more questions about where your goods are from, Trade and Development Minister Gareth Thomas said today.
Speaking to shoppers, consumer groups and chiefs of high street chains in London today, Gareth Thomas said the growing number of people wanting to shop ethically are entitled to more information about the source and production methods of their food, clothes and furniture from the places they shop.
Gareth Thomas is backing the new 'Be an Ethical Pest' campaign created by the Ethical Trading Initiative. He said;
"Despite the economic downturn, sales are rising in ethical goods as are consumer concerns. A survey published last week showed that last year 60% of under 25's said they bought the clothes they wanted and really didn't care how they were produced whereas this year it's gone down to just 36%.
"The public are obviously committed to the idea of helping developing countries through their weekly shopping, but there's not enough information out there to help people shop ethically."
East Asia has trebled its share of world trade since 1980 and lifted half a billion people out of poverty. Despite having 12% of the world's population, Africa's share of world trade fell from 8% in the 1970s to 1.3% in 2005.
Gareth Thomas said:
"This is not just about trade; it's about trade that works for local people. The public are entitled to know how ethical different shopping chains are - which ones are committed to getting their suppliers to pay a living wage, how transparent they are about their supply chains and which can be trusted never to source goods made with child labour."
Questions to ask when out shopping from the ETI's Ethical Pest campaign:
- Do you know which country this product comes from?
- What are you doing to protect the rights of workers who are making your products?
- Do you know how much the workers making your products are paid?
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Notes to editors
The Department for International Development (DFID)has invested £12 milllion since 1997 in initiatives to promote fair and ethical trade with developing countries.
The Ethical Trading Initiative is a not-for profit alliance of companies, trade unions, charities and campaigning organisations. Our 52 corporate members, which include many of the UK's leading retailers (Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer to name a few) have a combined turnover of over £107 billion; dedicate 404 staff to ethical trade and last year instigated 54,000 separate actions to improve worker conditions among a 38,000 supplier base, collectively touching the lives of more than 6 million workers.
The Ethical Pest initiative is being spearheaded by Tara Scott and Stacey Dooley, two of the six young people whose experiences working in the garment industry in India were filmed as part of the BBC series Blood, Sweat and T-shirts.
TNS Statement:
The TNS Worldpanel Fashion survey collated the opinions of 7,000 demographically representative British individuals. The survey was conducted in June 2008. All data discussed in the above announcement is based on the findings of this report, TNS will only support data which is published in the context we have presented it and our own interpretation of these findings. We cannot be held responsible for any other interpretation of these findings.
Sales in Fairtrade goods from April to June this year were 55% higher than in 2007.
Over 90% of the fruit and almost 40% of the vegetables we eat are imported and UK customers spend over £1 million a day on fruit and vegetables from Africa.
DFID: Contact Heledd Owen on 020 7023 1752 or Ginny Reid on 020 7023 1792 or 020 7023 0600, e-mail pressoffice@dfid.gov.uk or call our Public Enquiries Point on 0845 300 4100.
ETI: contact Julia Hawkins on 020 7841 5180 or julia@eti.org.uk