More Oxfam in the supermarkets, more security for the fair trade farmers

A living income for producers worldwide. That’s what Oxfam Fair Trade is all about. Unfortunately, we are facing additional challenges due to the coronavirus. The regulations mean that, for the time being, our hospitality clients are unable to purchase their usual amounts. To ensure we can continue to offer our fair trade farmers sufficient sales we are expanding our partnerships to include retail clients. You will now find more Oxfam Fair Trade products than ever before in Belgian supermarkets.

More and more consumers are making sustainability and fair trade a priority. This becomes clear from, among others, the historical growth figures of Fairtrade-labelled products in 2019 (30% increase in turnover). As a pioneer Oxfam wants to give the Belgian consumers the largest possible opportunity to choose fair trade. By strengthening our collaborations with supermarkets we are also increasing sales opportunities for our partners and producers. We are expanding the Oxfam Fair Trade assortment in several large chains and you can already find us in thousands of shops.

Oxfam Fair Trade in the supermarket

During their wine festival in September Carrefour launched three Oxfam Fair Trade wines. That the supermarket chain made the right choice was immediately clear from the raving reviews of the Koopmanskloof chenin blanc and Koopmanskloof pinotage. And these wines will still be available on the shop shelves after the wine festival. Later this year you will find many more new Oxfam products at Carrefour.

In addition to the Oxfam chocolate spread, fruit juices, pepper and honey that have been garnishing the shelves for quite some time, Delhaize recently added our organic Highland coffee and our organic chocolate drink powder to their assortment. Something for fair trade fans of any age!Or at Bio-Planet of course, the supermarket with the largest assortment of Oxfam Fair Trade products. From rice to rum, to coffee and chocolate, to wine, sweets or cookies: more than thirty Oxfam products are available there. All organic of course.

Colruyt has had the organic Highland coffee from Oxfam Fair Trade in their assortment for many years. Thanks to the Colruyt customers our organic coffee farmers in Congo, Uganda, Honduras and Peru are selling much more than before. With the JUSTE Tripel Colruyt provided us with an extra sales channel for our Belgian fair trade partner Brasserie des Légendes this summer. The brewery that makes our three JUSTE beers supplies lots of beer to the hospitality industry in ‘normal’ times so they can certainly use the extra support.

BioShop, Origin’O, Färm and many other independent bio, diet and health food shops also have a large assortment of Oxfam Fair Trade products on their shelves. Ask for your favourite Oxfam product at Match, Smatch, Alvo, Spar, Makro, Metro or your local grocer.

Security during corona

Oxfam’s suppliers around the world are feeling the impact of the corona pandemic in different ways. Many of them are saying that the partnerships they built up over the years are really bearing fruit during this crisis. Thanks to fair trade we have a buffer for difficult situations and trade partners we can continue to rely on, like Oxfam. Is there room for fair trade in your shop? Will you serve Oxfam at your next corona-proof event or after work drink? Or switch to fair trade coffee at the office?