Thousands of events from banana-eating competitions to fashion shows will take place across the UK over the next two weeks to encourage more people to buy Fairtrade and support farmers in the developing world.

Organisers of Fairtrade Fortnight, the Fairtrade Foundation, say that the credit crunch is making it even more difficult for poor families to cope with rising global food costs and even more vital that people buy Fairtrade.

“The Fairtrade Foundation’s message for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 is that, while sales of Fairtrade products and awareness of Fairtrade has been growing apace in recent years, change is still not happening nearly quickly enough for the millions of the world’s poorest farmers who remain trapped in trade poverty,” said Harriet Lamb, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation.

“The challenge now is to urgently scale up the reach and impact of Fairtrade so that by working together, we can succeed in tipping the balance of trade in favour of marginalised farmers and producers. Fairtrade Fortnight is an opportunity for us all to do something too by holding events at work, at home or in the community.”

The sale of Fairtrade products currently benefits 7.5 million farmers, workers and their families who live in impoverished rural communities in the developing world.

Over the next two weeks, debates on trade, climate change and ethical shopping will be held in Oxford, Cardiff, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Leeds. The Great Trade debates will explore the various issues in relation to marginalised farmers and workers and the role that Fairtrade is playing.

In addition, more than 20 farmers from Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and St Lucia will visit schools, businesses and community groups across the UK to explain more about the impact Fairtrade is making on global poverty.

Staff at the headquarters of the United Reformed Church are supporting Fairtrade Fortnight by taking part in a worldwide banana-eating event which will see Fairtrade producers and supporters all around the world will eat bananas on Friday 6 March.

The URC’s Commitment for Life programme coordinator, Linda Mead, said the effort would highlight the plight of banana growers and show the Church’s support for the Fairtrade Foundation’s campaign to see the number of fairly traded bananas bought in the UK double by 2012.

“The trade has made big profits for banana companies, but this has declined rapidly. Most profit is now made at the top of the supply chain by increasingly powerful supermarkets. They squeeze farmers and plantation workers. A series of bitter battles between supermarkets has made conditions in the mainstream banana industry miserable,” she said.

“Fairtrade challenges these injustices, strengthens the position of marginalised farmers and workers and enables them to earn enough for today to invest in a better tomorrow.”

On the web: www.fairtrade.org