Bewley's has announced its plans to switch to 100% fairly-traded coffee by the end of the year.
The iconic Irish beverage company is one of several retailers promoting Fairtrade Fortnight, which gets underway today. It was the first Irish company to make the move to fairtrade back in 1996.
Tomorrow is day one of the annual Fairtrade Fortnight, in association with @Fairtrade_ie ! #Fairtrade pic.twitter.com/YupMq4BZ4u
— Bewley's Ireland (@BewleysIreland) February 26, 2017
The annual campaign takes place as it is revealed that sales of fairtrade produce across Ireland climbed by 9% in 2016.
While Peter Gaynor, head of Fairtrade Ireland, has welcomed the news, he argued that more needs to be done when it comes to ethical consumption:
"It's good news that it's growing but it's not growing quick enough. All of us could do a lot more in terms of our purchasing habits.
"I think we need to make the effort to go and to look for the products, to ask for the products when they're not available, and to ask the retailers why they don't take more responsibility themselves for making this thing happen to a greater extent so that more people in developing countries can benefit from better terms of trade."
The fairtrade system ensures that farmers in the developing world get a guaranteed fair price for their goods. In return, they agree to form democratically-run co-operatives.
