Fairtrade campaigners – who took part in thousands of events during Fairtrade Fortnight – are celebrating the success of ‘The Big Swap’ which saw people and groups all across the UK swapping their usual purchases for Fairtrade ones and reaching the fantastic target of one million and one swaps.

The campaigner who registered the one millionth and one swap was Michaela Booth, the commercial Catering and Retail Manager at Salford City College. She helped register more than 70,000 swaps across the five centres of the college under her responsibility.

All hot drinks and fruit juices at Salford City College are now Fairtrade and there are Fairtrade options in every vending machine across the college. Michaela is now planning to introduce Fairtrade muffins as a new line.
Michaela, who lives in Todmorden, Yorkshire, says: ‘I was elated when I heard that I was the person who helped the Fairtrade Foundation reach its target and tip the swap-o-meter over the millionth mark. Fairtrade is my passion. I am going to keep encouraging students at the college and people across Salford to use Fairtrade whenever possible and continue to help farmers in developing countries. I tell people that when they buy a Fairtrade tea or coffee they are giving a helping hand to another student or another family just like them.’

Swaps were completed across the range of Fairtrade products including tea, chocolate, coffee, bananas, cotton, herbs and spices plus newer ranges such as cosmetics, cottonwear and olive oil. The most popular everyday item swapped was tea with 1 in 4 pledging to swap their cuppa to one carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark on the special swap-o-meter (www.fairtrade.org/thebigswap).

After tea, the next favourite swap was chocolate, showing that people in the UK really do have a sweet tooth. Almost 90,000 chocolate swaps were made. The third biggest swap was coffee, with almost 80,000 swaps.

Harriet Lamb Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation: ‘People across the UK have been swapping ‘til they drop. It’s been a fantastic achievement and I want to send a big thank you to all the people who chose to swap something to Fairtrade. They are helping to make a difference to the millions of farmers who survived a difficult year and can now plan for the future.

‘As well as individuals we also had great support from companies so thanks also must go to  Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks and Cadbury’s which also made major swaps.’

As well as hitting its target, the swap-o-meter revealed many interesting regional variations. Scotland came tops as the region which made the most swaps with more than 85,000 making the switch to Fairtrade. The top three swaps in Scotland were tea, coffee and chocolate with nearly twice as many people in Glasgow exchanging chocolate for Fairtrade, compared with Edinburgh. Fairtrade supporters in Scotland also staged many events to raise the profile of Fairtrade, including an impromptu Big Brew flask mob in Dumfries and a Strictly Fairtrade dance in Dundee.

After Scotland, in second position came the North West with more than 105,000 swaps. In a battle of two cities, Manchester pipped Liverpool to the post by making more than 700 more swaps than its traditional rival. Mancunians were also more romantic than Liverpudlians with many more saying they would buy Fairtrade flowers. However, around twice as many people in Liverpool proved to be chocolate lovers.
Dr Bob Doherty from the Liverpool Fairtrade Steering Group, which organised a Strictly Fairtrade Tea dance at shopping centre Liverpool One said: ‘Fairtrade tea still represents only 10% of the UK market and so  we were calling on everyone to “Swap Their Cuppa” to Fairtrade tea and it’s great to see that the people of Liverpool have responded.’

The South East came in the regional third place with more than 100,000 swaps. Hertfordshire County Council swapped to Fairtrade by passing a resolution in support of Fairtrade and launching a Fairtrade county campaign. The Sussex town of Burgess Hill held singing, dancing, musical extravaganza, a Fortnight and Freedom Festival which also had a panel debate chaired by BBC News presenter George Alagiah.

London wasn’t far behind in fourth place with more than 88,000 pledges. More Londoners agreed to swap Fairtrade wines than in any other city. They were also the healthiest by coming top of the Fairtrade fresh fruit exchanges. The top three swaps in the capital city were tea (more than 20,000), wine and coffee. Thousands of events also took place in and around the city including a Mad Hatter’s Fairtrade Tea party in Richmond, a comedy night in Newham and dance workshops at Spitalfields Market in the city.

Veronica Pasteur, head of campaigns for the Fairtrade Foundation, said: ’We particularly want Londoners to keep swapping so that when visitors flock to the city for the London 2012 Olympics they will be able to see what a great example we are of a Fairtrade capital city.’

In a battle of the brains between top University towns Oxford and Cambridge, the blues may have won the boat race this year but they lagged behind their rivals when it came to swaps. Cambridge made almost 3,000 more swaps than Oxford.  The majority of Cambridge’s swaps were tea and coffee.

Cambridgeshire also saw one of the most imaginative Fairtrade events when campaigners in Ely organised an Fairtrade Alice in Wonderland themed open-air playlet with the Mayor and Town Cryer as the Narrator.
Across the border, the top swaps in Wales were tea, chocolate and fruit.

In a YouGov survey commissioned ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight, out of 3,300 people asked if they would consider switching one or more of the products they buy to Fairtrade, 55% said they would. Top swaps were bananas (42%), other fruit (31%), Coffee (29%), Tea (28%) and chocolate (26%). In a separate survey by Kantar Worldpanel, almost 90% of GB Households bought a Fairtrade product in 2009.

Around 835 organisations also registered swaps.  The top five were organisations to make the most swaps were: Salford City College  with  70,070 swaps; Dumfries & Galloway Council who persuaded 20,015 employees to swap to a Fairtrade product;  Lexington Catering who registered  12,850 swaps; Duchy Catering with  10,914  swaps; and lastly; man alive number five was Gala Bingo who registered 8,000 swaps.
Top business swaps included almost 25,000 Starbucks customers who switched to the new Fairtrade certified brownie. More than 30,000 people downloaded a Paolo Nutini CD, produced as part of Cadbury’s Big Swap promotion.

Harriet Lamb added: ’Fairtrade Fortnight has shown that with the range of Fairtrade products now available it’s easier than ever before to live a Fairtrade lifestyle. We want to keep this momentum going and encourage people and businesses  to continue to make the move to Fairtrade to help ensure that farmers are paid a fair price for their products as well as a Fairtrade premium to invest in community projects.’


– ENDS –

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.

Eileen Maybin
Head of Media Relations
020 7440 7686/07770 957 451
eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk

Martine Julseth
Media and PR Manager
020 7440 7695/07825 827 791
martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk

Faith Mall
Media and PR Manager
020 7440 8597/07766 504 947
faith.mall@fairtrade.org.uk

Neil Martin
Assistant Press Officer
020 7440 7620
neil.martin@fairtrade.org.uk

Notes to Editors

The Big Swap was the theme of Fairtrade Fortnight 2010. More details on the campaign, events across the UK and the latest tally of the number of swaps being registered by UK members of the public can be found at www.thebigswap.org.uk

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.

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 7.5 million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

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.

Figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 3359 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th - 17th February 2010.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).