 really quickly. He is a fair trade activist who's over in here in the northwest from Brazil. His name is Rafael Furtado Fonseca and he's visiting Bancrana, Climani, Bali-Liffen and Movil today. It's during fair trade fortnight and the idea is to encourage businesses and customers to use ethically sourced products. And I'm delighted to say that. Excuse me, he joins me on the phone now if I can just eliminate some background noise and go to the feed. Rafael, good afternoon. Hey, good afternoon, John. Thanks very much for having us here. No problem. It's good to talk to you and it's good that you're here. I suppose it's good that you're here to spread the word because we hear about fair trade, but it's good to talk to somebody who is actually at the other end and can see firsthand the difference that it makes when we do reach for bar chocolate or, you know, jar of coffee or whatever. Exactly. Yes. First of all, thank you very much for this great opportunity, John. I'm right now here at Super Value Bancrana, OK? And it's really nice to be here with you, especially talking to an audience that knows how important it is to buy fair trade products, OK? So, for example, I'm a real witness of the positive effects that we might have when you buy fair trade flowers or when you buy fair trade chocolate, like Tony's chocolate, for example, because when you're buying fair trade products, OK, you are improving the lives of growers around the world. I come from a small coffee cooperative where growers are able to have a better life because they are fairly paid and also because they are part of some great projects that can only happen because people are buying fair trade products like fair trade coffee that we produce. So it really makes a profound difference in their lives. So, in other words, these are producers who are not at the mercy of big multinationals. Instead, they're part of usually cooperatives and they're paid a fair price for their products. Exactly. That's a very important point that you mentioned because in general in producing countries, growers, they are not able to tell the price that they want for their product. But just these big companies, OK, the market, as they say, just comes up to them and say, today we are paying this specific price for it. And sometimes this is lower than the cost of their production. But with fair trade, no. Fair trade has what we call minimum price, which is above the cost of production or it is in the production cost. And this is really a profound difference because this way, we are assuring that they will have enough money to make their living, to take care of their land and also to perform in the farms in a sustainable way, OK? Because it's just impossible to be sustainable if you haven't got enough money to make a living. So it really does make a difference. So if you're not being paid a living wage and you're not being paid the cost price at the very least for your product, then you're not going to be able to invest in sustainable practices whether that's for getting water onto your land or for preventing soil erosion or deforestation. And those are the sort of issues that then when they're increased up to a grand scale can affect us all. Yes, exactly. Especially because first you are going to worry about making your living, OK? And if you are barely enough to make that, or if you're not only able to do that, OK? It's impossible that you will think about these other sustainable aspects, OK? Are very important for the whole world. And something very important to John is that many people don't mention, is that normally if you are engaged in an activity that's not profitable for you, you just quit that. So in order to assure that we are going to have coffee for people to drink all over the world, chocolate for people to eat all over the world, flowers, OK, to make your house more beautiful, OK? It is really necessary that producers of these products in other countries, they have a decent life, they have a fair life, that they are paid a fair price for their products. And that's why we encourage everybody to buy fair trade products. And thank you very much for doing this. OK. And that little emblem, that little symbol on products as well, it tells us that, you know, that they're ethically sourced products. But also, in a way, it's quality assurance. And that, you know, we know the symbol is attached to good products. Exactly. Yes. Normally, fair trade products, they have a really high standard of production, OK? So for example, when you are buying fair trade products like Tony's chocolates and flowers, all right, you can be sure that these products, they are extremely well cared for, they were well produced, OK? And I can give you an example of the coffee that the members of my call produce, OK? We are constantly checking the quality of their product. And furthermore, it's something that they are, it's not something that they just produce and send and sell to any person. No, they are sending to their call, it's their company. And this company exports their product. So in fact, they really worry about the quality of this product because they are proud of producing it. And they want to make the best product possible. So whenever you see a fair trade label on a product, you can be sure that you are buying high quality goods for sure. You sat there today in Supervalu in Bunkrana. But I suppose it's important to stress that fair trade products are available, not just in small artisan shops and food markets, but in big supermarkets and big chains, big supermarkets like Supervalu and Lidl and Aldi and, you know, Duns and Hirtesco and all the rest of them. If you seek them out, you will find fair trade products and you will find alternatives to the big multinationals who don't really care that much apart from getting their money. Yes, for sure. Fair trade products, they are available everywhere, OK? And they're easy to be purchased, right? Exactly. You mentioned Lidl, OK? We have also Aldi and many more Supervalu, right? And something else, they even if your store doesn't stock this specific product, they're easy to be found by the store owner. So if you, consumer, you want to buy fair trade product and your favorite store is not stocking this product right now, you may ask them about that because it's easy to purchase this product. So for you as consumers, it's really easy to make a difference. And once again, John, we thank you very much for doing so. OK. As part of your work, as part of your work for the, well, co-map, is that what it's called, your cooperative in Brazil? Perfect. You travel around the world here in Europe and also to the United States. Do you find that, you know, that attitudes are changing more and that we are becoming more environmentally aware and more aware of the things that are happening in different far flung parts of the world, how they can affect us here on the ground. And not just that, we're also becoming more aware that ethically sourced products are, you know, just generally a good thing. Are you in general now pushing more of an open door? Yes, yes. I believe that people are getting more and more engaged with sustainably sourced products, OK? And I also believe that people are so worried about what's going on in the world nowadays. For example, never before we have heard so much about deforestation, for example. In the past, this used to be a third world country problem, OK? But nowadays, people see as a planet problem, as a world problem. People are really engaged with that, OK? And especially, for example, when I come to Ireland, OK? And I see children engaged with that. We see schools talking about this, OK? Supermarket chains buying more and more perpetrated products. People getting interested in learning about it. So I see that people are getting more and more engaged. And especially people here in Ireland. I'm very happy to be here to see how people got engaged with perpetrated products, OK? And once again, OK? I can't get tired of saying this, that this attitude makes a difference, OK? Sometimes you might be thinking, oh, I am here in my town. No, you are making a difference. If you buy one perpetrated product, you can be sure that growers are around the world. They are having their lives improved. So it does make a difference. And things are really changing because of attitudes and initiatives like this one of Fairtrade. So this is one thing that we can all make a difference in every time we go shopping. Karen Donna and Mulville have already received Fairtrade town status. Bancrana is currently in the running, and Balli Liffen and Clamane are aiming to get Fairtrade community status. So you're in a good part of the world, Raphael. And just to mention an event that is on later by the way, and this is... Sorry, it's a Fairtrade morning that was on this morning, so I thought it was on this afternoon, but that was this morning in Mulville. Listen, I know you already have had a busy day, and I'm sure it's not over yet, but thanks for taking a wee bit of time for having a chat with us, Raphael. Oh, thank you very much for this great pleasure, John. It was really an honour to be here with you, and with a great audience. Thank you very much. Around the Northwest in a...