The City of Geneva named a “Fair Trade Town”

On Thursday 24 November, the City of Geneva will be named a “Fair Trade Town” in recognition of its commitment to fair trade. This ceremony will bring to a close a week of action entitled “Fair Week – La semaine équitable” designed to take a stance against the aberration of “Black Friday” and to call consumer habits into question.

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logo avec inscription Fair Trade Town

Fair Week

Fair Week, led by Swiss Fair Trade, the Western Swiss Magasins du Monde Association and the City of Geneva with the assistance of the Geneva Association supporting Action de Carême, is taking place from 17 to 26 November in Geneva. This action was launched to counter Black Friday and raise the issue of over-consumption. The programme includes activities such as round tables, workshops, a clothes swap and tastings. 

The City of Geneva and the “Fair Trade Town” campaign

As part of the “Fair Trade Town” campaign that it joined in 2021, the City of Geneva is participating in this week of action and encouraging private stakeholders, in particular shops, restaurants, businesses, associations and private individuals, to adopt a more responsible approach to consumption. Within the administration, it is also committed to consolidating the principles of fair trade in public procurement procedures and increasing the proportion of suppliers meeting these criteria.

Although the City of Geneva’s Sustainable Food Charter requires a preference for short circuits, some essential products come from more distant regions. This is the case of coffee, tea, chocolate, spices, certain exotic fruits such as bananas and certain cereals (rice, quinoa). It is our responsibility to provide fair production conditions in foreign countries. The municipality has therefore set itself the goal of significantly increasing the proportion of fair trade food products in establishments calling on mass catering (school restaurants, nurseries, receptions, etc.). Fair trade and organic coffee bean solutions are also systematically made available to the municipal departments.

“The question of equity is not only a matter for North-South relations. In Switzerland too, agricultural production all too often suffers from inadequate remuneration. The “local” and “fair” aspects are thus entirely complementary,” emphasises Alfonso Gomez, Executive Councillor responsible for sustainable development.

The award ceremony for this acknowledgement (6.30 p.m. in the Salle GamMah, Promenade du Pin 5) will be followed by a round table on this subject.

Media contacts

City of Geneva

Anne Bonvin Bonfanti, Management Advisor, Department of Finance, Housing and the Environment
@email or 079 594 14 92

Swissfairtrade

Anja Immobersteg, Project Manager
Anja.Imobersteg@swissfairtrade.ch or 076 380 33 47

Article modifié le 18.11.2022 à 15:37