Connections and Concerns – help needed

Working in fair trade with producer partners in six countries in Africa and the Indian sub-continent, there are times when a new story catches my attention in a way it might not otherwise. When a container ship blocked the Suez Canal, I was immediately mentally checking where our products were on route and wondering about the impact, or when COVID rates escalated in South Africa and then India my thoughts were with our producers there and likewise when there was flooding in Malawi, or protests in Eswatini. Sometimes, there is very little we can do, sometimes, as in the case of COVID, JTS has responded with an appeal to support the producer groups with hand-washing and education.

Most recently, it has been the situation in Sri Lanka that has made the headlines. It is, no doubt, much more complicated than this but, essentially, Sri Lanka has been massively impacted by the lack of foreign exchange following the collapse of the tourism industry in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 and travel restrictions related to COVID. The economic crisis is severe.

In the last few weeks, the situation in Sri Lanka has worsened with daily power cuts lasting for hours at a time and long queues for fuel as well as a steeply increasing cost of living. There have been protests widely across the country.

We have been in contact with the team at Ma’s Tropical Food Processing, our producer partner in Sri Lanka, to understand how this is affecting them and to see if there is anything practical that we can do at JTS to help.  Their feedback was that “the situation on the ground is as bad as it looks…. It seems almost every part of the island is having a large protest.”  Ma’s are predicting food shortages a few months away.

When the news headlines are so full of really tough situations, at home and abroad, it can be hard to know how to respond. In this situation, particularly given Sri Lanka’s need for export earnings, one very practical thing we can all do is support the work of amazing fair trade producers like Ma’s by buying their products.

JTS has stock of their Fairtrade & Organic coconut milk as well as their Organic curry pastes (click here)  as well as an order in production in Sri Lanka that will provide some much needed income for Ma’s and their producer communities.

We will continue to be in touch with Ma’s and let you know if there are other ways we can support them.