Fairtrade’s Marike Runneboom de Peña on how trade can end poverty

Marike Runneboom de Peña is not one to mince her words. When asked for the biggest barrier to securing sustainable livelihoods for farmers, she gives one word. “Businesses,” says the global CEO of Fairtrade International. “Because poverty and unfair trading conditions are directly linked – that’s it.”

Born in the Netherlands but a long-time resident of the Dominican Republic, where she’s worked directly with banana farmers for more than 25 years, de Peña takes her time when asked how she’d sum up her highly intricate role. “Connecting farmers’ and workers’ needs with market expectations,” she settles on.

Fairtrade works in many ways, across many areas. But its primary aim is helping the benefits of trade to be shared more equally – through standards, certification, producer support, programmes and advocacy.

This week, it releases its new Global Strategy 2026-28, which focuses on “accelerating action today that drives resilience for tomorrow”. That means helping producers, businesses and supply chains build readiness for a trade landscape riven with everything from geopolitical instability and climate change to evolving consumer values and an expanding regulatory market.

The timeframe of just two years – the previous strategy was five – is an acknowledgement that Fairtrade might need to pivot quicker. The main change, though, is a move from a compliance-based approach to a risk-based one, says de Peña.

“We know today’s problems; we don’t know which problems we will have tomorrow,” she says. “So we need businesses, farmers and workers to be strong enough to manage risk. It’s about creating strong processes for them to identify their risks and act on them.”

They need help, though. This is where businesses should come in, says de Peña. Instead, she finds those in charge of the purse-strings are fully on board – until it hits the bottom line.

“Everybody thinks fairness is important, everybody thinks sustainability is important. But when it gets to the need to pay for it, you get into a difficult debate,” she says. “It’s about price. No one should produce anything and sell it below the cost of production. But this is what a majority of farmers in the global south are doing daily. This is the simple reason why people are poor.”

She acknowledges “every business needs to survive, every business needs to be cheaper than its competitors” but laments the “race to the bottom”. As de Peña points out, it is difficult to change that mindset through voluntary action.

“We’re losing smallholder farmers” who “produce half the food we eat in the world”, she says. “Losing them because it’s not profitable for business is not long-term thinking. Businesses need to be more aware of the power they have to change it,” de Peña says.

Some have debated Fairtrade International’s power to change the situation. Since it was founded over 30 years ago – as an umbrella organisation bringing together national Fairtrade organisations– the world’s poorest farmers don’t seem to be a lot better off.

De Peña rebuts that narrative. “We’ve influenced standards, influenced policy, put fairness on the agenda of many sustainability debates,” she says. “If you measure where we were 30 years ago to where we are now, and how farmers are an active part of building a better future, it’s better. I can see a lot of progress, even if you cannot say they’re not poor any more.”

For de Peña, breaking the “poverty in mindset” is key. “It’s about not waiting for others to end poverty, which probably won’t happen. You won’t put an end to poverty through charity. You will put an end to poverty through trade.”

Another criticism of Fairtrade is that not enough of the additional money spent by consumers on products makes it directly into the hands of poor farmers. On that point, de Peña urges critics not to “underestimate the benefits of collective investment”, which is championed by Fairtrade.

Then there’s the argument that most smallholder farmers are unable to access Fairtrade because they lack the knowhow and finance. Here, de Peña says its only requirement is that farmers are organised, which she admits is more common in Latin America than Asia or Africa. “If we can have specific cases, we’re willing to look into it,” she says.

Brands turning their backs…and returning

Overall, few could argue against Fairtrade being a force for good. Not least in cementing the idea that consumers and companies should care about the people who grow their food – a niche concern 30-40 years ago.

Still, that hasn’t stopped certain UK brands and retailers from abandoning Fairtrade standards. Sainsbury’s went its own way on own-label black tea in 2017 – a decision it reversed last year. Mondelez International, meanwhile, dropped Fairtrade certification for Cadbury and Green & Black’s in favour of its own ‘Cocoa Life’ scheme back in 2016.

“Everybody has the option to go. But some come back,” de Peña smiles. “Sometimes they need to learn, to see how difficult it is, to end up concluding that having a network for fair trade, which is present everywhere, is useful. Companies are being forced to behave differently – Fairtrade can support them.”

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She praises Fairtrade’s “close relationship” with Sainsbury’s as key to its return. After all, “Sainsbury’s left in tea but was still very relevant in other products”. The retailer is part of a supermarket ecosystem that means the UK is “definitely a driver of making trade fair. What I’m not sure about is if the UK is really proud of it, and if it wants to take this leadership role.”

UK consumers also appear to be switched on. Late last year, a Kantar study commissioned by Fairtrade found 86% of shoppers want brands to be upfront about sourcing and 55% think businesses should take a ‘large amount’ or ‘full responsibility’ for protecting the human rights of workers in their supply chains.

Nonetheless, the feeling pervades that pricier Fairtrade products can be viewed as a ‘nice to have’ or even a luxury, particularly during a cost of living crisis.

“We need to create more awareness about what you can achieve with just a few cents more,” de Peña says. “Consumers do think it’s a ‘nice to have’ sometimes – even businesses do. But this ‘nice to have’ has an end date. It’s about value distribution. If we want to have coffee and cocoa tomorrow, that’s a must.”