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Fairtrade mark 10th birthday

HF Local Agenda 21 will be celebrating with free tea, coffee and chocolate for locals.

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Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Fairtrade mark, the theme of this year's Fairtrade Fortnight (1-14 March) is "A Taste for Life", celebrating the quality of life Fairtrade means. Some 6,000 events are expected to take place around the UK, including one in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Hammersmith & Fulham Local Agenda 21 Forum is organising a Fairtrade Fortnight stall on Saturday 13 March. Volunteers will hand out free samples of tea, coffee, chocolate, cereal bars and orange juice at Sainsbury's, Fulham Broadway Retail Centre (right by the tube station entrance/exit), from 11am to 7pm. Joan Smith, local author and Times columnist, will be lending her support at 1pm. (For more information, please contact Mary Corrall on 020 8748 7955)

Set up in the early 1990s, the Fairtrade Foundation certifies and promotes Fairtrade, a trading partnership that seeks greater equity in international trade by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised farmers and workers in the developing world.

According to the Fairtrade Foundation, sales of products carrying the Fairtrade mark are running at an annual rate of £100 million. Sales for 2003 totaled an estimated retail value of over £92m, 46% up on 2002 when £63m was spent by UK shoppers. By the end of 2003, shoppers were spending over £2m per week at the checkout on products with the Fairtrade mark, compared with the £2.7m spent in the whole of 1994.

There are over 250 products from over 100 companies, and more than 300 catering suppliers nationwide offer Fairtrade products.

March 6, 2004

Fairtrade Foundation Web site