As Co-Chair of the Fairtrade APPG, today I asked the DFID Secretary about sustaining Fairtrade supply chains during the global pandemic.
Jason McCartney MP
I am very proud to co-chair the all-party group for Fairtrade, alongside the hon. Member for Halifax (Holly Lynch).
Earlier this year we welcomed a Fairtrade cocoa farmer from the Ivory Coast to Parliament.
Can my right hon. Friend tell the House what her Department is doing to safeguard and support Fairtrade supply chains during this global covid pandemic?
Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP
We are engaging with businesses in the UK and developing countries to understand the challenges they are facing in protecting incomes and livelihoods and in ensuring that supply chains remain resilient.
To tackle the factors driving covid-19-induced food insecurity and to keep farmers’ supply chains open, we are repurposing programmes in agriculture, social protection and humanitarian assistance.
In all of these we continue to put the poorest and most marginalised at the heart of our programmes to address the underlying causes of chronic hunger.
