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People in the UK and Ireland are being encouraged to swap everyday shopping basket items such as tea, coffee, chocolate, cotton tee-shirts, pineapples, bananas, cakes, sugar and a host of other products for Fairtrade ones during Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 (22 February - 7 March) which has the theme of The Big Swap.

Fairtrade Fortnight is the annual nationwide campaign to promote awareness of Fairtrade and encourage people to buy products which carry the FAIRTRADE Mark in order to help farmers in developing countries. Fairtrade Fortnight unites Fairtrade supporters, bringing together retailers, manufacturers, producers and consumers.

During Fairtrade Fortnight 2010, the Fairtrade Foundation will be totting up product swaps on a special online swap-o-meter. The aim is to get people in Britain to make one million and one swaps over the two-week period and change the lives of millions of farmers around the world.

Research shows that even among people who are likely to agree with the ideals behind Fairtrade, entrenched shopping habits sometimes prevent them from consciously looking for and choosing new Fairtrade products. The Big Swap is designed to show shoppers how easy it can be to break out of old shopping habits and start new ones - especially as more than 4,500 products¹ have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark.

Celebrities are expected to be among those backing The Big Swap by wearing or buying something different from Fairtrade Fortnight onwards. Campaigners and supporters in the thousands of Fairtrade Towns, Schools, Universities and Churches around the country will also join the campaign and swap something for Fairtrade. Supermarkets and other retail outlets nationwide will also be asked to join the campaign.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation says: “This Fairtrade Fortnight we are asking everyone permanently to swap something - or ideally lots of things - in  their normal shopping basket for a Fairtrade product. From face cream to ice-cream and from rice to cereals people can choose from a huge range of Fairtrade products. These swaps will mean we can deliver much greater change for producers from developing countries and help tip the balance of trade in their favour.”

The Fairtrade Foundation is producing action guides for Fairtrade Towns, Faith Groups and Schools, downloadable from the website www.fairtrade.org.uk and full of brilliant ideas³. A microsite at www.bigswap.org.uk  will be launched in early January with plenty of ideas and resources available for any event, however large or small, including posters saying Britain! Swap Your Cuppa; What’s your Fairtrade Swap?; and Swap Your Five-A-Day.

Farmers from countries including India, the Windward Islands, Ghana and Dominican Republic will be in the UK during the two weeks visiting Fairtrade campaign groups in towns,  schools, universities and colleges up and down the country⁴.

During last Fairtrade Fortnight more than 10,000 events took place around the country - everything from workplace Fairtrade coffee breaks to debates and fashion shows in hundreds of major towns and cities. For example, the Bolton Wanderers first team warmed up wearing Fairtrade tee-shirts on match day and the next day thousands of people packed the Reebok Stadium to participate in a record-breaking banana eating event. Some 450,000 people nationally took part in setting the banana eating world record and Cadbury’s announced that it would convert Cadbury Dairy Milk to Fairtrade.

Harriet Lamb adds: “Just imagine - you could be the person who makes the 100^th or 1000^th swap - or even the final swap which takes us past the million mark. Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 will show how our little actions add up to a lot and help to change lives.”

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For more information please contact Faith Mall, Media & PR Manager at the Fairtrade Foundation, on 0207 440 8597 or Eileen Maybin, Head of Media, on 0207 440 7686.

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 Notes to Editors

1.     Today over 4,500 retail and catering products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, olive oil, rice, quinoa, herbs &  spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub, plus cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys and cotton wool.

2.     The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7 million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 59 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

3.     Action guides can be downloaded from www.fairtrade.org.uk

4.     Today there are over 450 Fairtrade Towns, 100 Fairtrade Universities & Colleges, over 5,000 Faith Groups and more than 3,000 schools registered with the Fairtrade Foundation.