Macau Oxfam launching Fair Trade campaign

A two-week Fair Trade campaign unfolds in Macau today. The event – organised by not-for-profit Macau Oxfam, along with 24 local eateries – aims to raise awareness among local residents and tourists of the concept of Fair Trade. Fair Trade is a social movement. It aims to minimise the exploitation of workers and farmers in developing countries by providing them with a suitable working environment and a fair return for their labour, thus enabling a greater equity in international trade between producers and businessman. The campaign in Macau consists mainly of three parts; namely, local restaurants revamping menus with Fair Trade products, street theatre programmes at various locations in Macau, and family workshops. The two-week campaign runs from today to April 3. Raising awareness Despite some lack of popularity due to limited supplies of Fair Trade products, campaign organiser Macau Oxfam told Business Daily that according to a survey Macau residents tend to accept the concept. A study conducted by the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) last year revealed that over 90 per cent of respondents were willing to buy Fair Trade products once they had digested the concept. Of these, more than 50 per cent were even willing to pay a little more, such as MOP10, for a Fair Trade product. Meanwhile, the survey also showed that rice, tea and coffee are among the most favourite items for them to purchase. “We had this idea of running this Fair Trade campaign in November last year. We co-operated with local production company K. Planning to help us implement this project by contacting the eateries’ owners to participate, [organise] production and [handle the] logistics of the street theatre workshops and making marketing materials,” Saul Chan U Wai, programme officer at Macau Oxfam said. With the notion of ‘Eat with Conscience, Benefit Farmers’, it aims to educate and encourage Macau residents to buy Fair Trade products through a sense of responsibility. Some 24 local eateries have participated in this campaign by introducing Fair Trade products to their menus for nine days from March 26 to April 3. Start from basics Most of the Fair Trade products are related to the food we eat every day thus in order to spread the concept of Fair Trade in the most effective manner it has to start with our basic living needs of eating food, said Alfred Choy, the project manager from Macau Oxfam for this campaign. He therefore perceives partnering with local eateries to be the best strategy to introduce this concept in Macau. “We offer some Fair Trade products’ samples to the eateries’ owners [for them] to try and taste first and see if they like the products when compared to the original raw ingredients they’re using in their menus. They then add two to three Fair Trade ingredients or make new recipes,” Mr. Choy said. According to Mr. Choy, some Fair Trade products, Fair Trade certified chocolate and non-Fair Trade chocolate products are fairly similar in terms of selling price. “Some of the Fair Trade certified chocolate products are even cheaper than the non-Fair Trade chocolate but of course there is some Fair Trade chocolate which is a bit more expensive than others to ensure farmers can earn a fair bit of income,” he explained. He added that according to one blindfold tasting test, by selecting three types of chocolate, without telling the participants what brand of chocolate they were consuming they found they actually liked the Fair Trade chocolate most in terms of taste than non-Fair Trade chocolate. Limited supply Currently, supermarkets selling Fair Trade products include Marks & Spencer (M&S), Royal Supermarket, New Yaohan and PARKnSHOP. Concept H, a participant in this campaign, is an organic product store which has been selling Fair Trade and organic products for the longest and with the widest variety of Fair Trade products in Macau, according to the organiser. “We have supplied pasta, coffee, tea, jam, dried fruit and nuts to Macau Oxfam for the campaign,” said Concept H owner Calista Chan. “Some of the products we import directly from the Fair Trade sellers in Malaysia and Europe; they originally purchase the products from Africa and other third world countries,” “Usually, when people come to visit my store it’s not because of the Fair Trade products; it’s more likely that they like the quality of Fair Trade Products after trying and coming back, but we still want more people to know about the concept behind it,” she said. However, Ms. Chan said that there are still limited suppliers in Macau for Fair Trade products. “There are many different varieties of Fair Trade products overseas but the difficulty we’re facing here is the same as other supermarkets in terms of freight costs and longer delivery time,” she explained. Making a difference “We’ve invited all of the local eateries in Macau but only 24 of them are interested; they all hold a positive outlook on this campaign and show active support,” Saul, Chan U Wai of Macau Oxfam said. Some of the participating eateries are setting up stall to sell Fair Trade beverages and goods during the campaign. Some have adopted a new menu using Fair Trade products. “We have women who are interested in Fair Trade products aged between 15 to 30,” said Marcus Hoi, owner of Café Voyage and one of the other participating eateries in the campaign. “Actually, it is hard to get Fair Trade products in Macau and we don’t know where and how to get it for our café. We’ve just been informed by Macau Oxfam about the Fair Trade products. It is our first time to use Fair Trade ingredients in our menu,” added Hoi. “I first knew about Fair Trade by reading some magazines and I didn’t know where I could find Fair Trade products in Macau,” said Ivan Lei, Owner of Paddington House of Pancakes, one of the participating eateries in the campaign. “When we explain what the concept of Fair Trade is to our customers they will choose to try it. Usually, young people and Westerners are our main stream of customers.” He also feels that local people don’t know much about the concept so more promotion is indeed needed. “I think it is meaningful to participate in the campaign,” said Kennie Tam, owner of Candy Café, also one of the participating eateries in the campaign. “Local people still don’t know much about the concept of Fair Trade and some people think that organic food is better for health so they will buy,” he said. “Wealthy and mature people are more interested in buying, in general, at the Café.” “The price of the menu is still the same after using Fair Trade organic pasta ingredients, and after the campaign ends we will continue to sell Fair Trade organic coffee to our regular customers,” he added. Step by step Alfred Choy of Oxfam said the estimated budget for this campaign is about MOP 200,000, with the majority funded by Oxfam Macau and other sponsors such as CTM, Royal Supermarket, and some local magazines providing free advertising for the campaign. Most of the expenditure is accounted for by publishing the ‘Mysterious Cocoa Beans’ illustration books created by Un Chi Wai, a local Macau graphic designer and children’s illustrator to advance the concept of Fair Trade. Meanwhile, some of the participating eateries have also contributed money to the budget. Gary Chan, owner of dessert house Serrdura, one of the participating eateries in the campaign, sponsored about MOP20,000 on a 75-second short animated video of the concept of Fair Trade for educating the public which will be shown on Macau Oxfam’s Facebook. “We tried the sample Fair Trade products given by Macau Oxfam and we liked the quality of them so we decided to put some into our dessert ingredients such as coffee powder, cocoa powder and cashew nuts; at the same time, we want to use this opportunity to educate the public,” said Mr. Chan. A small cup of serradura (sawdust pudding) is about MOP20 to MOP25 and some Fair Trade made serradura sells at MOP30. “Honestly, if we purchase cheaper ingredients that helps us to increase our revenue, but the reason we are participating in this is that we want to educate the public to the idea of Fair Trade by giving the public coupons to try and come to know what Fair Trade is so we’re willing to reduce the profit for this campaign,” Mr. Chan explained. Marcus Hoi, Owner of Café Voyage, also said by creating some new meals by using Fair Trade produced penne the price of the meal remains unadjusted, and still sells at MOP50-60. “Fair Trade seems a popular concept overseas and this can have a positive effect here with a good purpose to help improve the living standards of poor farmers,” he said. Hong Kong model Campaign posters on public buses and in local supermarkets, including Royal Supermarket, and a short animated promotional video are the main marketing ingredients. “It’s hard to promote Fair Trade only by distributing leaflets and posters because Fair Trade is strongly related to food, so the idea of partnership with local eateries fits the campaign. People can try and taste the Fair Trade products,” Mr. Choy of Oxfam said. He added that previously Macau Oxfam has tried workshops in commercial organisations, universities and high schools. It organised about 20 workshops at the University of Macau with positive feedback, while some organisations and schools have invited Oxfam to hold Fair Trade-related activities again. “The first Fair Trade campaign [in the SARs] dates back to the 70s in Hong Kong. Looking back on the last 10 years in Hong Kong promoting Fair Trade, it has become a fair success. Now, we can implement the Hong Kong model in Macau and encourage more traders to join producing Fair Trade products. In the beginning, not many people [wanted] to buy Fair Trade products in Hong Kong, either, but after many years by continually doing marketing campaigns more shop owners have started importing Fair Trade products to sell. I hope the Macau traders will do the same, and open more shops to sell [them],” Mr. Choy said. “I hold a positive view of Macau being a tourism city with the demand of many tourists coming, and possibility of partnership with hotels to encourage tourists to buy.” He added that Macau Oxfam is also planning to sell Fair Trade products at its office. To be continued Besides the collaboration with the restaurants, six street theatre programmes co-organised with local drama group Zero Distance Co-operative aim, through interactive theatre, to educate the public on unjust and fair trading. They will take place from March 18 to March 27 at various locations in Macau. Moreover, two family workshops are to be co-hosted by Fair Trade Hong Kong and Concept H. The workshops – titled ‘Fair Trade coffee grounds dying fabric workshop’ and ‘Fair Trade cookies-making workshop’ – aim to involve the public so that they will have a better understanding of Fair Trade. Nevertheless, the campaign will be an ongoing process for Calista Chan of Concept H. Ms. Chan told us that the shop is co-operating with the University of Macau, organising seminars and cooking workshops for UM Open Day 2016 this Saturday to introduce Fair Trade ingredients. “Promoting at the university is easier since young people are more likely to be receptive to the concept of Fair Trade,” Ms. Chan said. “We’re also actively contacting other schools and associations to see if they’re interested in running some cooking workshops in which we can introduce Fair Trade products”.