A Tale of 10 Cities

Reformed rivals celebrate 10 years of the FAIRTRADE Mark and cyclists get into gear for Fairtrade.

Five pairs of UK cities are putting aside their traditional rivalries to jointly declare Fairtrade Town status at 1pm on Friday 5 March, when all are expected to meet the goals set by the Fairtrade Foundation. Their successful bids will be celebrated during Fairtrade Fortnight (1-14 March), the trigger event for the year-long FAIRTRADE Mark 10th Birthday celebrations.

And cyclists from the 10 Cities and other areas (see below) will set off on a ‘Spokes of the Wheel’ cycle ride, converging on Garstang in Lancashire – the world’s first Fairtrade Town - on 12th March. They will stop overnight at ‘staging posts’ to celebrate with Fairtrade supporters and visit Co-op supermarkets.

The rival cities are Lancaster & York, Oxford & Cambridge, Southampton & Portsmouth, Aberdeen & Dundee, and Leeds & Liverpool. They will join the 31 UK towns, cities, villages and zones which are part of the Fairtrade Towns Initiative. These continue to work towards increased awareness of Fairtrade.

Bruce Crowther, Fairtrade Towns co-ordinator and the inspiration behind the Fairtrade Towns Initiative, explains: “The Wars of the Roses made Lancaster and York infamous rivals and Oxford and Cambridge are of course known for their boating rivalry. The rivalries of all 10 Cities are obvious to people who live in these areas, it’s wonderful that they’ve agreed to put them aside and declare Fairtrade status jointly. This act of friendship is a symbol of the way Fairtrade works around the world, with people buying products which actively help people in developing countries.”

As part of Southampton’s move to declare Fairtrade status, local bands, actors and supporters dressed as Fairtrade foods will gather at the quay on 5 March to welcome a banana boat from the Windward Islands. Its cargo of Fairtrade bananas will be presented to the Mayor of Southampton and taken to hospitals and community centres with messages from the farmers.

“By selling bananas with the FAIRTRADE Mark, farmers can earn enough to stay on their land and invest in projects such as building community centres and buying equipment for hospitals and schools,” says Fairtrade Foundation executive director Harriet Lamb.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt will attend a Fairtrade event in Leicester on Saturday 6 March. Justino Peck, a cocoa producer from Belize who supplies the Fairtrade market, will visit Brighton, Oxford, Reading, Birmingham, Leicester, the Eden Project in Cornwall, Torquay, Exeter, Stockton, Stirling and Glasgow. Brian E Namata, who grows sugar in Malawi, will visit Nottingham, Manchester, Chester, Liverpool, Lancaster, Powys, Swansea and other Welsh towns, Swindon, Frome, Bristol, Bolton, Garstang and Leeds.

Oxford is planning a Town Hall reception with the Mayor and a Fairtrade Festival in the town centre with music, food and supporters dressed in banana costumes. Lancaster and York will remember their ancient rivalry by playing some ‘Unfair Games’ designed to emulate the uneven playing field in world trade, and Oxford Brookes university, which became the first Fairtrade University in June 2003, will hold a Question Time event. Birmingham will host a Fairtrade Breakfast and Leeds a Co-op conference.

The ‘Spokes of the Wheel’ cyclists will arrive in Oxford on 8 March, Brampton and Wrexham on 10 March and Bolton, Haworth and Liverpool on 11 March. As well as these staging posts, cyclists will set off from all 10 Cities and more areas will be added in the run-up to Fairtrade Fortnight.

Fairtrade Fortnight’s national launch party will be held at London restaurant Mezzo, part of the Conran Group, on 1 March. It will be attended by Fairtrade Foundation patron George Alagiah and Ed Mayo, chief executive of the National Consumer Council. A new photography exhibition entitled A Taste for Life - the theme for Fairtrade Fortnight - will be showing 1-14 March at London’s Oxo Tower Gallery to coincide with Fairtrade Fortnight and will tour the regions (see Notes to Editors).

The Fortnight’s theme is a celebration of quality, both the quality of life for producers which is enhanced by the Fairtrade premium, and the top quality of the products. Since the first three Fairtrade products – Clipper Fairtrade tea, Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate and Cafédirect coffee – hit the shelves in 1994, the power of consumer choice has enabled millions of food producers, from Sri Lankan tea pluckers to Tanzanian coffee farmers, to have a better quality of life.

In 2002, £20.3m was received by producers from European sales of Fairtrade coffee alone. UK sales of products with the FAIRTRADE Mark rose by 90 per cent between 2000 and 2002 to an estimated retail value of £63m. Overall international sales increased by 21 per cent by volume in 2002 in 17 countries.

If you would like more information about Fairtrade Fortnight activities in your area, visit the website of the Fairtrade Foundation at www.fairtrade.org.uk

Notes to Editors
1. To attain Fairtrade status from the Fairtrade Foundation, a city must achieve the following five goals:

• The local council must pass a resolution supporting the initiative, agreeing to use Fairtrade products in offices and identify a councillor to work in partnership with the local Fairtrade steering group.
• A sufficient number (depending on population) of local shops and cafes must provide at least two Fairtrade products.
• The above rule is applied for workplaces and community organisations.
• The campaign needs to be able to demonstrate popular support.
• A steering group must be set up to ensure continued commitment to the initiative.

2. A Taste for Life, the photo exhibition for the 10th birthday of the FAIRTRADE Mark will tour around the UK from 14 March 2004. For further information, please contact the Fairtrade Foundation on 020 7405 594

3. Garstang was declared the world’s first Fairtrade Town in November 2001, with a certificate presented by actor Tony Robinson. It was followed by Chester in January 2002 and has taken off all round the UK.

4. Towns, cities, villages and zones (dedicated areas) can all achieve Fairtrade status. They all come under the umbrella of Fairtrade Towns as Garstang, the first to declare, is a town.

5. The existing Fairtrade Towns are Aberfeldy, Ammanford, Bolton, Bradford-on-Avon, Bridgnorth, Cherry Burton, Chester, Criccieth (Wales), Croydon, Derby, Frome, Garstang, Glastonbury, Haworth, Hebden Bridge, Kendal, Leicester, Ludlow, Malvern, Morpeth, Nailsworth, Newcastle, Nottingham, Paisley, Pendle, Stockport, Strathaven, Stroud, Wells, Wrexham.

6. In 2002 shoppers spent over £63m at the checkout on foods with the FAIRTRADE Mark. Nearly all major supermarkets and many independent stores are now including Fairtrade in their range. Every week 1.5m Fairtrade bananas alone are sold. There are now nearly 98 companies and 300 catering suppliers offering over 200 Fairtrade foods. In 2002, sales of Fairtrade products across the 17 countries covered by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation grew by 90 per cent.