Fairtrade Fortnight was the biggest ever
- over one million and one swaps to Fairtrade made

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From tea parties and tea dances to swap-shops and fashion shows, hundreds of thousands of people attended events up  and down the country during Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 to encourage everyone in Britain to swap a non-Fairtrade product for one carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark. Producers from St Vincent, Ghana and India visited events to share with campaigners how every purchase of a product with the FAIRTRADE Mark makes a real difference to producers in developing
countries.

On 25 February 100 tea ladies descended on central London to encourage Londoners to make the Big Swap to Fairtrade tea. They chanted their way across London Bridge, took over a tube carriage, marched around the Houses of Parliament and danced in Trafalgar Square. Oh, and stopped off to chat to Sarah Brown at Number 10 on the way! As a result of this and other events, the swap-o-meter at www.fairtrade.org.uk hit the one million and one swaps target, with thousands of people swapping their usual products for Fairtrade ones, sending a clear message that the UK wants farmers and workers in developing countries to benefit from fair prices and the Fairtrade premiums for community development.

For more highlights visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/celebratingfairtradefortnight. Let the swapping continue!

Top business award for Fairtrade Foundation
- recognition of 'fairer way to do business'

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The Fairtrade Foundation is delighted to be awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category. The Fairtrade Foundation was cited as ‘making a tangible difference to the livelihood and quality of life of local communities within some of the world’s poorest regions and is an outstanding demonstration of the benefit which sustainable consumerism has on communities across the globe’.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: ‘This award is recognition from the very top that there is a fairer way of doing business. This will spur us on to take sales to an even greater level, opening further opportunities for producer organisations to build a better future.’ Fairtrade has grown into a powerful consumer force. Estimated sales in 1998 were just £16m. Today they stand at £800m.

Alex Yeboah-Afari, a board member of the Fairtrade Foundation and the African Fairtrade Network, said: ‘This award is a compliment to the progress of Fairtrade. For the producers, it is an acknowledgement that Fairtrade can open the doors to sustainable development.’

The first Fairtrade Town is 10
- celebrations in Garstang

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Converged on Garstang, a sleepy market town in the North West of England to mark a decade since Garstang was declared the first ever Fairtrade Town. This momentous achievement was celebrated with a party in Garstang itself and a live link-up with Media, the first Fairtrade Town in the US and New Koforidua, Garstang’s twin town. Bruce Crowther, the founder of Garstang Fairtrade Town, was praised by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as ‘one of Britain’s ‘everyday heroes’.

It all started 10 years ago when the Garstang Oxfam group led a local campaign to encourage people and organisations in the town to back a fairer, more just way of trading by using Fairtrade products. At a public meeting in April 2000, the people of Garstang voted to make Garstang a Fairtrade Town, prompting the Town Council to pass a resolution in support of Fairtrade. Following Garstang’s declaration, the Fairtrade Foundation established a set of five Fairtrade Town goals through which any community could achieve Fairtrade status, and the last 10 years has seen 800 other towns across 19 countries work for and achieve Fairtrade status.

Visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/towns for more information on how you can promote Fairtrade in your community and read or send messages of congratulations to Garstang.