Fairtrade Fortnight takes place on the 21st September – 4th October 2026.
Fairtrade Fortnight is a UK-wide awareness campaign to encourage us to think about the people behind the food and goods we purchase. The campaign puts those who grow the coffee, cocoa, bananas and other produce we enjoy into the limelight. The aim is to shift the farming and trading industry onto more equitable grounds. For Christians, Fairtrade also raises a deeper theological/ethical question: what does it mean to pursue justice in the ordinary choices we make, including what we choose to buy?
What is Fairtrade?
Fairtrade was created to recognise that farmers and workers deserve to be treated and paid fairly. The ‘Fairtrade Mark‘ is a guarantee to consumers that a product has been sourced according to these standards: farmers are paid at least a ‘Fairtrade Minimum Price and receive an additional Fairtrade Premium to invest in their communities or businesses.’ Fairtrade tries to correct a structural imbalance, making sure that the people doing the most physically demanding, and often lowest-paid work in a supply chain, aren’t the ones who benefit least from it. This makes Fairtrade more than simply a label on a product. It draws attention to the human relationships behind the things we consume, and asks us to consider whether those relationships are just.
What does the Bible say about fair pay?
As Christians, we’re reminded that fair pay for honest work isn’t an optional kindness, but something owed. Jesus tells the seventy-two he sends out that the labourer deserves their wages (Luke 10:7): ‘Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.’ Paul shares this same sentiment and gives similar instructions to the Early Church when he writes in (1 Timothy 5:18), ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain’ and ‘The labourer deserves to be paid.’ These passages reflect a wider biblical concern with the dignity of work, and the obligation not to benefit from another person’s labour while disregarding their wellbeing. Christian theology therefore gives us a way of looking at Fairtrade that goes beyond consumer choice. If every person is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), then the farmer who grows our cocoa or coffee isn’t simply part of a supply chain; they are a person whose dignity and livelihood matter.
Who is our neighbour?
Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31) can appear straightforward if we think it relates to the people who live near us. However, global supply chains make the question more complicated. The person who grows our coffee, cocoa or bananas may live thousands of miles away, yet their livelihood can still be connected to our everyday consumption.
Fairtrade invites us to look beyond the finished product, and consider the person behind it. Loving our neighbour, in this context, can mean asking whether the people whose labour make our everyday lives possible, are being treated justly.
Why does Fairtrade matter?
Since the Covid pandemic, farmers in many parts of the world have had to go through significant tribulations. Consequently, this leads to ongoing poverty concerns in the farming sector, which make it even harder for them to cope with the effects of the climate crisis.1
Farmers and workers in developing countries can face low prices, unstable markets and difficult working conditions. Fairtrade seeks to address some of these pressures through measures including the ‘Fairtrade Minimum Price’ and ‘Fairtrade Premium’. For Christians, this connects with a biblical vision of justice. Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to pay attention to the treatment of the vulnerable and marginalised. Justice is therefore not only about what happens in churches or governments; it can also shape how we engage with the economic systems around us. This means we have an opportunity to bring Christian principles of justice, dignity and love of neighbour into everyday decisions.
Fairtrade, justice and creation
Christian concern for justice also sits alongside one for creation. Farmers depend directly on land, water and stable environmental conditions for their livelihoods, meaning that the impact of climate change can place additional pressure on communities already facing economic insecurity.
The biblical vision of creation presents human beings not simply as consumers of the earth, but as stewards and custodians of it (Genesis 2:15). Consequently, Fairtrade provides an opportunity to think about two connected questions: how do we treat the people who produce what we consume, and how do we treat the world in which that production takes place?
Where can you buy Fairtrade products?
More than 4,000 different Fairtrade products can easily be found in the majority of supermarkets across the UK. Just look for the Fairtrade label mark, which indicates the product meets the internationally agreed standards. For many consumers, one of the simplest ways to participate is to look for the ‘Fairtrade Mark’ when shopping for products such as coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas and sugar.
How can churches support Fairtrade?
This could take shape in a multitude of ways depending on the size of the church community.
- Everyday choices: Switching the tea, coffee, sugar, and biscuits used at church for Fairtrade-certified products, whether that’s for Sunday services, meetings, or coffee mornings. It’s a small, visible, repeatable act.
- Fairtrade Fortnight events: Hosting a Fairtrade stall after a service or a short talk/testimony from someone connected to a Fairtrade cooperative, to build awareness beyond just the products themselves.
- Teaching and prayer: Weaving Fairtrade into sermons, prayer points, or youth/children’s groups, so the justice dimension isn’t just practical but theological, helping people see it as an act of loving their neighbour.
- Advocacy: Encouraging the congregation to write to retailers or local MPs about supply chain practices, turning individual consumer choices into a collective voice for change.
For churches, Fairtrade can therefore become more than a shopping decision. It can become an opportunity to connect worship with the way we spend, consume and relate to people beyond our immediate communities.
A Fairtrade Cocoa Reflection:
One way of thinking about Fairtrade is to stop and consider the person behind an everyday product. This reflection from cocoa farmers invites us to see chocolate not simply as something we buy, but as the result of years of work, care and livelihood.
‘With thanks to cocoa farmers who have shared their experiences over the years. First you plant the seed and tend it. Shelter it. Water it. Wait until the sapling is ready to plant in the soil you have prepared. Then you surround it with plants that will shade but not overcrowd it. And you wait for years, feeding the soil. Watching branches and leaves grow, protecting them from insects. As the tree matures until finally pods burst from the bark and swell thick with seeds and fibres, and are ready to be picked. Then you break open the pods, scoop out the beans, and spread them to dry on a table. You turn them with your hands, running your fingers through the rich, brown harvest, sorting, searching out the bean that is not quite right, cherishing the others. And then you sell the beans hoping that the person choosing their children a treat will understand that your chocolate isn’t just chocolate, it’s your village’s children staying in school, your daughter able to become a nurse, your aunt purchasing land of her own. The victories that mean that hope grows in your fields like the seeds you have planted.’
What can you do?
Fairtrade is also calling on the British Government to pass a new law that would ensure all businesses address human rights’ abuses, and climate damage behind their products. If you want to take action beyond your shopping choices, you can find out more about Fairtrade’s campaign here and sign their petition here: Sign | Fairtrade Foundation
Fairtrade Fortnight ultimately asks us to look again at something we might otherwise take for granted. As Christians, that means asking not only what we consume, but how our consumption relates to our calling to love our neighbour, pursue justice and care for God’s creation.