What is Fairtrade?

The concept of ‘fair trade’ has been around for over forty years but did not include a formal system until the late 1980s. It was established by Christian Aid, CAFOD, Oxfam, Traidcraft and the World Development Movement and later joined by the Women’s Institute. The first product to be certified was Green & Black’s Maya Gold Chocolate followed by Cafedirect coffee and Clipper tea. The concept has taken off dramatically since these first products were certified and now includes a variety of food, clothing and gift ranges. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation which envisions a world in which sustainable development, equality and fair pay form the basis of any trade structure. In order to achieve this, Fairtrade attempts to transform previous trading structures in order to help the disadvantaged and poverty-stricken. They work with businesses, communities and individuals all around the world to improve the trading rights and position of organisations who are often taken advantage of.

Why Should You Buy Fairtrade?

Fairtrade is not just any non-profit organisation. Not only do they provide a fair and honest service to the communities and businesses involved but they also provide the consumer with great quality produce at a fair price. You reap the benefits of investing in Fairtrade products. The Fairtrade certification enables the consumer to make informed decisions about their purchase choices and means they can be safe in the knowledge that their money is providing a reasonable income for those people who are involved. The quality of the produce is well worth the price, especially with the realisation that the people putting in the groundwork get fair compensation for their services.

Fairtrade Towns

Fairtrade also promotes the education of local communities involved with trade structures and issues. As a charity it believes that ordinary people can make a dramatic difference to the livelihood of the producers and aims to increase awareness of this belief. Fairtrade towns are those which are committed to promoting understanding of trade issues in their local community – to find out more please take a look at the Fairtrade website.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2010

Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 took place from the 22^nd of February until the 7^th of March and was labelled ‘the big swap’! Fairtrade asked the nation to swap their usual produce choices to Fairtrade – whether it be coffee, chocolate, fruit or socks. By doing this the general public proved that they care about their responsibility as consumers and can make a real difference to the lives of the people who grow or sew that which we buy, eat and wear. Fairtrade fortnight was a phenomenal success with celebrities such as Emma Watson creating Fairtrade fashion lines, Oxfordshire schools hosting a week of incredible green events and Cadbury’s offering songs from the likes of Paolo Nutini and Sway when you registered your swap to Fairtrade. The nation spoke out and showed the world that Britain cares about the lives of the farmers and workers that provide us with so much of our material goods. Why not try to make the swap to Fairtrade certified products yourself and reap the benefits of great quality products that make a real difference to the lives of the producers.

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Celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight and receive 20% off all items with free UK delivery for orders over £50.

Simply enter FF2010 in the Discount Voucher Code box in the shopping cart for 20% discount!!

Offer starts 22 February and ends 7 March 2010.

Buy online at www.ambanature.co.uk

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Myakka are once again supporting Fair Trade Fortnight, an annual event co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Foundation.  Running between 22^nd February and 7^th March this year’s Fair Trade Fortnight centres on a campaign called ‘The Big Swap’.

Somerset based furniture and home accessories retailer, Myakka are supporting the Fair Trade Foundation’s big swap by encouraging customer’s to swap their plastic carrier bags for reusable, fair trade jute shopping bags.  For every ten plastic bags sent in, Myakka will send customers a brand new, hard-wearing jute shopper completely free of charge.  All the plastic bags collected will be sent for recycling.

“It’s not quite as easy to swap your furniture for a fair trade option as it is your tea, coffee or chocolate but we wanted to show support for this increasingly important annual event co-ordinated by the Fair Trade Foundation and came up with the ‘big bag swap’ as a way of taking part,”  commented Simon Whitehead, Director of Myakka.  

Last year, Myakka’s team were part of the record breaking fair trade banana eating campaign which took place between 6^th and 7^th March 2009. Over 380,000 campaigners each ate a fair trade banana during the 24 hour period, smashing the previous record. This year’s ‘Big Swap’ is aiming to generate over one million and one swaps over the two week period and change the lives of millions of suppliers around the World. Swaps are recorded through the online swap-o-meter which can be found on the Fair Trade Foundation’s website: www.fairtrade.org.uk.

To generate a swap customer’s simply need to send ten plastic bags with a return address to:  Myakka, Tythings Commercial Centre, Wincanton, Somerset, BA9 9EQ.  Customers will then be sent a reusable, fair trade jute bag completely free of charge and encouraged to visit the online swap-o-meter to register their swap.

Simon Whitehead actually flies out to India on 22^nd February, the first day of Fair Trade Fortnight, to meet with key suppliers and visit community projects which Myakka are involved in.  Simon will be approving the latest new furniture samples which will be launched in Myakka’s Autumn Catalogue between visits to SKSN School.  Projects include the supply of desks and benches to the local school, a youth training scheme empowering older children with the skills to earn a living and now an apprenticeship scheme to educate older children in carpentry.

Georgie Hopkins concluded, “Most people associate the fair trade label with tea, coffee and chocolate production.  There are many more items produced following fair trade principles which help to offer the people involved what we in the UK take for granted.  Fair Trade Fortnight and The Big Swap campaign is a great opportunity to raise awareness of this.”

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Fairtrade Fortnight (22nd February to 8th March 2010) will focus on “the big swap”. The idea is to get people to swap to Fairtrade certified products from the conventional products they currently purchase, with a special emphasis on tea.

Since everyone likes a slice of cake and a biscuit with their Fairtrade cup of tea, it’s been a chance for Kate at Tropical Wholefoods to get her baking hat on again and tell everyone about the gorgeous recipes TW have on their website. Her current favourites are the Tea Loaf which uses Tropical Wholefoods Chewy Banana Chips and Bogoya Banana (along with Fairtrade Tea and raisins) and Amoretti Biscuits which uses Fairtrade natural Apricot Kernels. Check out some of the other Apricot Kernel recipes too – like the Savoury Biscuits, and the Orange and Apricot Kernel Cake on their website: http://www.fmfoods.co.uk/resources/recipes.htm

Sally Reith at Shared Interest is baking a Fairtrade recipe every day of Fortnight and is kicking off with the Banana and Walnut Tea Loaf. (Thank you Sally!) TW will also be baking for the Fairtrade Tea Dances in Newcastle and London on 27th February.

If anyone would like recipes and ingredients to use during Fairtrade Fortnight, please get in touch with rachel@fullwellmill.co.uk and she can send you a pack.

Kate will also be putting up recipes on our blog: http://tropicalwholefoods.blogspot.com/

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