Minister Conor Lenihan announces doubling of Irish Aid support to the Fair Trade Programme in Nicaragua to €500,000
Minister Conor Lenihan announces doubling of Irish Aid support to the Fair Trade Programme in Nicaragua to €500,000
Conor Lenihan T.D., Minister of State for Development Cooperation and Human Rights, today announced a doubling of Irish Aid support to the Fair Trade Programme in Nicaragua to €500,000.
Minister Lenihan made the announcement at the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight. Recalling his recent visit to Nicaragua, Minister Lenihan said that Fairtrade is important, because it strives to reach the small farmer and producer.
“In Nicaragua, I saw for myself how Irish taxpayers' money is being used to help producers increase their incomes, for example by supporting conversion to organic coffee and installing new machinery and infrastructure.
Irish Aid is also supporting more efficient and reliable business management, personnel training and helping producers consolidate market links with larger European coffee companies.
For me, fair trade is all about the empowerment of the poor. Making use of whatever resources they have to hand. It is with great pleasure therefore, that I am announcing the doubling of support to fair trade producers in Central America to €500,000 this year. In addition, we are looking at ways to further our cooperation with Fairtrade in Africa and Central America.
In Ireland, we are fortunate to have Peter Gaynor and his Fairtrade team raising public awareness and demand for Fairtrade products. Their efforts have contributed to the world-wide growth, averaging 40% per annum, in sales of Fairtrade Mark products.”
Note for Editors
Irish Aid currently provides financial assistance to the Irish Fair Trade Network to support its activities in Ireland. This will amount to a total of €410,000 over the period 2005-2007.
Irish Aid has played an important role in supporting capacity-building for small coffee producers in Central America through its funding for Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) America under the Central America capacity building civil society programme. This funding amounted to €567,000 for the period 2003-2006.
The programme generated an immediate impact by stabilising small producers' income during the most recent collapse of international coffee prices. It helped by changing the focus of the producers from marketing a product based on volume to one of improving quality, producing specialist coffees, segmenting their market, identifying niche markets and converting to organic products. This integrated approach contributed to an increase in local employment.
ENDS+++
Press Office
05 March 2006
