The issue: The Market price for cotton is so unpredictable that without fairtrade standards, many farmers are unable to sell their crop without making a loss and falling into a cycle of debt and despair. By launching fairtrade cotton in the UK this pioneered a new solution to spiralling poverty for farmers in the developing world.

The Actions: On a cold and dreary day in March 2006, we celebrated the launch of new range of pants and the launch of fairtrade cotton at a pants flash in front of the Royal Exchange in the heart of the city of London. With no more Make Poverty History coalition, we were striking out on our own using trade as our tool to fight poverty.

The result: Since this launch date, fairtrade cotton has conmtinually grown at more than 50% year on year and now supports XXXX thousands of farmers across India and Africa.