Fairtrade Fortnight heralds a number of milestones for the cause

Aside from our own Devine chocolate giveaway, the arrival of Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 this week has seen a number of high profile milestones met and big business pledges made across the world.  After recent YouGov data (published at Retail Week) showed a 12 percent growth in fairtrade goods through 2009 due, at least in part, to the moves of major supermarkets and cosmetics manufacturers, let’s take a look at some of the major moves being reported during and preceding Fairtrade Fortnight.  (Feel free to add more in the comments!)

The Big Swap
In an impressive and ambitious move, the Fairtrade Foundation have launched The Big Swap campaign which urges consumers to opt for the fair trade version of their favourite products.  Swaps can range from all kinds of everyday goods, from coffee, bananas and chocolate, to non-edible items such as cosmetics and clothes – with the target being to record one million and one swaps by the end of Fairtrade Fortnight.  For further information about registering your swaps or attending any Swapping events over Fairtrade Fortnight visit: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/thebigswap

Fair Trade TV Advertising
With the launch of The Big Swap being a feat in itself, those watching TV over the next two weeks may well notice some significant advertising milestones.  At 8.15 on Thursday 25th February, Channel 4 will be broadcasting the first ad-break entirely dedicated to fair trade products.  The break has been co-ordinated by the channel to promote Fairtrade Fortnight and includes a commercial for The Big Swap as well as a range of other companies making significant moves into fair trade, including Co-op and Starbucks.

Ben and Jerry’s
The arrival of Fairtrade Fortnight has seen a large number of household name brands and companies announce a turn to fair trade products and practices, but the latest pledge by Ben and Jerry’s is perhaps one of the most significant.  Ten years after the founders of one of the world’s most well-known and socially-conscious ice cream brands announced being bought out by Unilever, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield proposed this month to use entirely fair trade ingredients across all their products by 2013 – a first for any ice cream company and a milestone for fair trade.

Cadbury’s Big Swap Songs
Literally making a song and dance about their moves to use fair trade cocoa, Cadbury’s are to release an eight track album called Big Swap Songs.  The confectioner recently announced that they would be investing £45 million to invest in sustainable farming methods in Ghana, India, South East Asia and the Caribbean – and to celebrate they have chosen Paulo Nutini and The Big Ghana Band to collaborate on a number of re-workings of songs from such artists as Goldfrapp and Elbow, as well as Nutini’s own hit Pencil Full of Lead.  The album can be downloaded online and is available on CD from the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight.

The Fairtrade Kit Kat: More than just a Nestle marketing strategy?

For chocolate lovers with a taste for fairtrade 2009 has certainly been an exciting year.  The food industry is awash with rumours that confectionary giant Nestle are in talks with The Fairtrade Foundation in order to make the Kit Kat certified fairtrade.

The talks come hot on the heels of news earlier this year that Cadbury’s Dairy Milk had earned fairtrade certification – a breakthrough for the company which coincided with the upgrade of Cadbury’s hot chocolate to fairtrade too.  The new certification also marked the first anniversary of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership (CCP), which sees a 10 year plan worth £45 million to improve the livelihood of cocoa manufacturers in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean.

The prospect of Britain’s best-selling chocolate bar going fairtrade is an intriguing one, and sees Nestle, a company which has been surrounded by criticism of dubious ethical practices in the past, making what some critics may like to call ‘a leap onto the fairtrade bandwagon’. 

So is the move merely a late attempt for a food giant to re-align itself with the ethical fairtrade brands such as Divine and the Organic Seed & Bean Company?  Or is it more than just a marketing campaign?

From Nestle’s point of view the move may be overdue, but it also appears to be part of a bigger company change to bring its practices in line with other 21^st Century businesses eager to give their suppliers a fairer deal.  The decision to make the Kit Kat (their flagship product which saw sales increase by 20 percent earlier in the year) fairtrade does appear to be of utmost significance – and if it goes through will see the Fairtrade logo reach a wider audience than it has ever done so before. 

Additional reports also identified that the company is developing its own ‘sustainability initiatives’ similar to those of Cadbury and the CCP where $109 million is earmarked to be spent in the third world – a portion of which is going towards disease-resistant cocoa plants for producers (according to FoodBizDaily.com).  The company has also announced that it aims to be using only sustainable palm oil by 2015.

However, with further focus on how Cadbury has faired since the rollout of its new ethical stance recently, it is no wonder that Nestle is being seen to follow their footsteps – and a fairtrade Kit Kat may be seen to up the ethical ante once more within the industry.  There is also the complex matter of whether Cadbury and Hershey’s manage to strike up a deal.  If they do so, Reuters sources speculate that Cadbury’s increasing dominance in the market may be something of a threat to Nestle – one that might result in the company wrestling back the U.S. distribution rights of Kit Kat, which has been in the hands of Hershey’s since the 70s.

With this in mind, the fairtrade Kit Kat will no doubt be a huge step in the right direction for Nestle as they strive to keep up with other ethically minded chocolate manufacturers.  As for the industry as a whole, the most important change is likely to be felt by cocoa manufacturers.  Cadbury’s moves to make five Dairy Milk markets (Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia) fairtrade is set to quadruple the cocoa demand for Ghana in 2010.  The move for Nestle could make the intended beneficiaries of Fair Trade, the indigenous cocoa producers, the real winners.

Fabric Fantastic

Our wonderful collaborator Asia Werbel a.k.a Colourspace has recently been commissioned by award winning BAFTA nominated animators the Brothers McLeod (Greg and Myles) to bring to life a recent project for the Law Centres Federation which runs centres around the UK which are not-for-profit legal practices providing free legal advice and representation to disadvantaged people.
The idea was to animate some fabric models to coincide with the story about a family man overcoming a drug addition and volunteering at a law centre to get his life back on track.

Asia worked closely with the brothers to turn their sketches and illustrations into fabric models. She also created a fabric background complete with patchwork houses and button trees.

 

The finished models and background are amazing and it creates a magical looking animated film.

Watch Jason's Story...

We've Been Busy

It's so busy here at Uneeka that we hardly have to time to post at the moment. But with all the new lifestyle shots back from the photographer we couldn't resist giving you a sneak preview into our new A/W 09 campaign and to show you just how busy we've been!

We promise it won't be long now until we're fully up and running with all our lovely new winter products so watch this space -  it's going to be worth the wait we promise!

 

 

Handmade Heaven

We are indeed in Handmade Heaven today!! With only 3 days until we officially launch all our new A/W09 products in-store, we're recieving numerous amounts of deliveries and parcels into our office.

One of the most exciting was our Colourspace package, full of fantastic faries, magnificent Matryoshka Russian dolls and festive Christmas tree's.

 

 

With plenty more products like this arriving by the day it's set to be our best season yet.

xx

Fabulous Festive Feet

We're big fans of the festive season at Uneeka and we're even bigger fans of these fabulous handmade stockings made by our favourite maker Asia Werbel. Available in two sizes small 20 cm £11.99 & large 33cm £22, they're handmade using a brightly coloured array of designer fabric off cuts. Each one unique and due in to the shop in less than a week we can't wait to get our hands on a few!

It may only be the first of October but with these sort of products waiting to come out we just couldn't wait to get them in-store!
Don't miss your chance to buy one. Available online at http://www.uneeka.com by the end of Oct.

It's Time to Cosy Up!

It's that time of year again and here at Uneeka we're looking forward to cosying up and sitting by the fire. With our new collection of knit wear and throws set to launch online in two weeks time, we've been looking for some serious style inspiration.

With crafts and make your own one of the key trends in interiors this season we've all taken up knitting in the Uneeka office and are loving some of these images which are taking knitting to the extreme!!

I'm not sure we're quite up to these standards just yet!