The UK is currently celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight. This event aims to raise awareness of the people that grow ingredients for our food and drinks, mine gold and cultivate cotton for our clothes. The Fairtrade Foundation ensures that the farmers and suppliers for these everyday purchases are paid fairly. For this to work, strong bonds must be built to ensure that trade can be sustained for years to come.
As language specialists, Albion Languages recognise how strong bonds are built upon foundations of trust and understanding. In this blog, we look at how our services can facilitate clear, succinct communication across borders to help build just this trust and understanding.
Localisation and languages
In economic terms, localisation refers to the process of building economic structures to allow the goods and services a community requires to be produced locally. This can strengthen community cohesion and lead to greater human health and material well-being, while reducing pollution and degradation of the natural world.
Localisation in languages –one of Albion Languages’ core services – is the process of adapting the language and translation of a product so that it appears fully customised to the specific country or region it is sold in.
The power of localisation in Fairtrade
Before the Fairtrade Foundation, many farmers and suppliers of the raw materials found in everyday products, were traditionally paid a pittance. The farmers would then struggle to survive, often living in poverty.
The Fairtrade Foundation puts more money in the hands of farmers, fighting for improvements to their livelihoods and the protection of a minimum price for their goods. A living income provides farmers with a decent standard of living – enough to cover their basic human rights, such as diet, education and healthcare. By empowering the farmers at the bottom of the Fairtrade supply chain, they have more money to spend in their local economy, driving growth in the local area and improving prosperity for the community as a whole.
How localisation empowers the Fairtrade movement
Put simply, the Fairtrade movement simply couldn’t exist without language localisation. To communicate with the farmers, the movement needs to understand them, the challenges they face and their aspirations. It must also be able to attract and educate in-country representatives who can speak to these farmers in their native language and explain the aims of Fairtrade.
Without language localisation, the message would be lost, representatives wouldn’t be on board and the farmers would continue to sell their products at unsustainably low prices.
Just look at Ghana, the second-largest supplier of cocoa to the global market. Cocoa beans from Ghana account for a staggering 25 percent of global supply and are ranked as the best in the world! The country’s official language is English, however the most spoken native language is Akan, closely followed be Ewe, while other native languages include Dagaare, Dagbane, Ga and Gonja. This illustrates the importance of understanding the local community and how imperative it is to have not only individuals but also literature which can successfully communicate with the people on the ground.
Belgium is the unofficial home of chocolate, importing $50.27m of cocoa and cocoa preparations from Ghana during 2020. Belgium has three official languages, Flemish, French and German. Between just these two countries, there are four official languages and a whole host of other unofficial but spoken languages. Clear communication throughout the supply chain is imperative for continued success and for that you need translation and localisation.
How Albion can help you localise
As language specialists, Albion Languages is skilled at communicating across linguistic and cultural borders. We have a dedicated team of localisation specialists who can work with you to ascertain your business objectives and decide how and when your content ought to be localised. This empowers your business to reach more customers and facilitate clear, succinct communication.
To find out more about localisation and how it can benefit your business, get in touch with a member of our team.