FAIR COMMENT

VIDEO ANSWER SHEET

INTRODUCTION

The closest contact most of us have with people in the

Third World is around our kitchen table.
What do you think this means?

What products did the ship Estelle bring to Belfast and

Dublin?
Bananas and tea

What is the name of the country where the coffee is grown

in this video?
Nicaragua

About what age are the boys working on the coffee

plantation?
About 8 10 years old

Describe their working conditions (eg. What are they

carrying, who is supervising them, do they appear happy,
sad, frightened?)
-

They are carrying heavy sacks

supervised by a soldier carrying a machete
looking frightened and sad

One third of all pesticides used in the world are

sprayed on bananas.

In what country is slavery common?

The Ivory Coast, West Africa

The Ivory Coast produces about half the worlds

cocoa

How much can a slave be bought for?

60 (76 approx)

Describe the conditions in which the young slaves are

kept?
they are kept on farms about 100 miles away from
their home
they are beaten if they try to escape

How many pickings does it take to make a single teabag?

16

The prices paid for tea have not risen in 40 years.

effect does this have on the Third World farmers?

What

They have to work harder forlonger.hours and for less

money

At the end of the introduction the writing explains that

Fairtrade
means that Third World producers receive a fairer
price
for their crops.

PART 1:

TEA PRODUCTION

This section of the video begins with Pat Kenny

interviewing a Ugandan tea-farmer named Josiah Chinanga.
How many miles did Mr. Chinanga have to walk to get to a
telephone?
70 miles

Although Irish consumers pay about 8.58 (6.76) for a

kilogram
of tea, the farmer who grows the tea only gets about 9
UScents.

What type of transport were the people using on the

video?
Bicycles

The Fairtrade label guarantees that the people who

produce the tea
and coffee get a better

deal

Fairtrade guarantees 3 benefits to small producers:

(i)

better prices for their crops

(ii) guaranteed longter

contracts

(iii)credit up-front if they need it.

The extra little bit of money we pay when we buy

Fairtrade products goes straight back to the growers.
They use it to provide:
(i)

better income

(ii) build schools

(iii)health service
(iv) running water

PART 2:

BANANA PRODUCTION

How many large companies control 65% of the banana

trade?
3

In the 1980s big companies cleared rainforests to

plant
more banana plantations.

Blue plastic bags are used to speed up banana-ripening.

They are impregnated with chemicals which have been
banned for a long time in the West. What health damage
can these chemicals do to plantation workers such as
Julio Lopez?
They can cause infertility in men.

Workers on banana plantations are not allowed to join

free Trade Unions. What happens if they do?
They are fired and put on a black list.

Workers selling to large banana companies are paid

about US$5 a box. How much does Fairtrade pay their
growers for a box of bananas?
US$ 8.50

PART 3:

COFFEE PRODUCTION

Fairtrade is the difference between

having just enough to live on and having a quality of
life;
the difference between
no education and education;
the difference between
looking after your old people and not;
the difference between life with and life without.
John Vidal,
Guardian
Newspaper.

How many people grow coffee in Nicaragua?

40,000

Low pay and unreliable working patterns mean that many

parents are unable to provide for their families. What
does this force them to do?
They have to send their children out to work.

Middlemen provide the transport to take the coffee beans

to the market and loan money to small growers but rip
them off with high charges and high interest rates. What
are these middlemen called?
Coyotes

How many countries is Fairtrade coffee now sold in?

17

How many coffee companies now have Fairtrade brands?

6

Coffee-farmer, Francisco Lopez Mendoza says he does not

use
chemical products because they damage healthand
land, polluting water and contaminating fish

One brand of Fairtrade tea is called

Tea Direct

One brand of Fairtrade coffee is called Caf Direct