Fair Trade Breakfast at the European Parliament highlights the role of cooperatives in achieving Living Incomes and Wages

This year’s event marked the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives and explored the connections between cooperatives, Living Incomes and Living Wages. The Breakfast brought together more than 70 participants, including Members of the European Parliament, European Commission representatives, civil society, embassies, and members of the wider Fair Trade Movement.

Participants had the opportunity to hear directly from producers, cooperatives, and Fair Trade enterprises, including:

• Marc Noel, Director of Partnerships at the International Cooperative Alliance, who highlighted the role of cooperatives in empowering producers and supporting decent livelihoods.
• Shamsiya Shamsiddinova, Production Manager at NCC Green Agriculture in Tajikistan and certified by the Fairtrade Network of Asia & Pacific Producers (NAPP), who shared how fair and equitable trading relationships can make living incomes a reality at the farm level.
• Inge Overmeer, Head of Global Partnerships, Sales & Marketing of Solid International, a member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) Europe, who showcased how responsible enterprises are already leading by example in delivering living wages throughout their operations.
• Jorge Conesa de Lara, Managing Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO), who emphasised the urgent need to move beyond voluntary commitments and embed living incomes and wages as a foundation of sustainable trade.

The 2025 Fair Trade Breakfast reinforced the importance of cooperatives, producers, and enterprises in creating fairer, more sustainable global value chains, and highlighted the urgent need to ensure living incomes and wages across sectors.

The Fair Trade Advocacy Office would like to thank MEPs Bernd Lange, Barry Andrews, Saskia Bricmont, Catarina Vieira, Cristina Guarda, Branislav Ondruš, Annalisa Corrado, Rudi Kennes, Vivien Costanzo, Maria Noichl and all members of the Fair Trade Working Group at the European Parliament for their support in championing fair and sustainable trade within the European Parliament. 

Our special appreciation goes to Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains Initiative (SASI) for their support in making the event possible.