BRISBANE’S Catholic Justice and Peace Commission has called on major supermarkets to stock more products made under “fair trade” deals.
The commission is urging Catholics to buy the products wherever possible as a practical way to support people in poor nations.
But the commission’s executive officer Peter Arndt said Australia’s major supermarkets were not stocking many of these lines.
He said the commission had recently held a series of parish talks and workshops on trade justice, presented by Josephite Sister Suzette Clark from the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council.
He said one of the practical ways Catholics could help was to buy products produced by farmers and workers who were paid fairly.
Mr Arndt said the commission was concerned major supermarkets chains like Woolworths and Coles would not stock the products whereas major chains in Britain did.
But a Woolworths spokeswoman said the chain did stock one fair trade product – a coffee brand – and that the problem in the past was accessing suppliers.
