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Impacts of increasing consumer choice on LEDCs. Good and Bad impacts. Positive multiplier effect. Kenya 135,000 employed growing flowers for UK market World’s 3 rd biggest flower grower – mainly red roses! second biggest export earner for Kenya
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Impacts of increasing consumer choice on LEDCs Good and Bad impacts
Positive multiplier effect • Kenya 135,000 employed growing flowers for UK market • World’s 3rd biggest flower grower – mainly red roses! • second biggest export earner for Kenya • 110,000 tonnes of flowers exported mainly to Europe
Fair Trade – better prices for Primary Producers • consumer demand for Fair Trade Products. Brecon a Fair trade town since 2008 • 60% extra of price goes to the producer • for £1 worth of bananas this is 3p up to 4.5p! • producers can improve wages for workers and can afford to send their children to school
Ethical Consumers – fashion trade • Companies like Primark stung by bad publicity now keen to make sure workers in LEDC supplier factories have decent working conditions and wages. • Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh 2013. • Don’t buy £2 T shirts – exploits workers abroad.
Child Labour • 36,000 identified cases of child labour in India in 16 years. • government statistics point to around 17 million child labourers in India • Anyone employing a child under 14 could get a 4 year jail term • Children missing out on education • Abused and exploited – paid a pittance
Factory deaths • Rana Plaza factory Bangladesh – over 1000 deaths 2013 • 4 deadly fire incidents in last 12 months too
LOW WAGES – race to the bottom! Garment Industry in Bangladesh: • It already employs 4m, mostly women, in a country with 31m households. • It has 5,000 factories, compared with 2,500 in Indonesia and 2,000 in Vietnam. Its labour costs less than any of its Asian rivals’ • But profitability has slumped. In the past five years the price paid for a garment has fallen 12%
Food Mile Campaign – LEDCs? • Ethical consumers want to reduce their carbon footprint … • … But how would this affect farm labourer’s wages in LEDCs – like Kenyan flower pickers?