The goal of the campaign was to make the European population aware of “the for the developing countries very detrimental construction of the world trade”. Pressuring politicians was more important than selling as much cane sugar as possible. Cane sugar became a symbol for the problem that the former colonies traded raw materials on an unequal footing with the wealthy, industrial countries.
The action booked a couple of successes in the Netherlands: local action committees emerged throughout the country, the action got a lot of media attention, and within a couple of years the consumption of cane sugar tripled. Around 40.000 copies of ‘Riet: het verhaal van suiker’ (‘Cane the story of sugar’) were sold and quite some municipalities switched to using cane sugar. The use of English on banners and protest signs shows the international ambition of the Dutch sugar cane action. However, the international cane sugar action was not very successful.
The cane-sugar action also reached its limits in the Netherlands: the sale of cane sugar was more successful in increasing the export from developing countries than in pressuring politicians and increasing awareness among the general public on unjust structures in the world market. Moreover, cane sugar lost its symbolic value when European governments and institutions became critical of the surpluses of sugar beets and other agricultural products that originated in the European agricultural subsidies. Furthermore, a shortage of sugar in the early 1970s meant that the EEG imported large amounts of sugar from developing countries.
Activists also lost their interests in cane sugar for various reasons. However, their interest in Fair Trade was not lost, and from 1969 onwards, many of the cane sugar groups started 'wereldwinkels' (roughly translated into ‘world shops’).
Sources
NICC Archive:
Peter van Dam, Wereldverbeteraars. Een geschiedenis van Fair Trade (Amsterdam, 2018).
