Read on for news on:
1. 6th International Fair Trade Towns conference in Poznan, Poland
2. World Fair Trade Day Breakfasts
3. World Fair Trade Day Photo campaign, Belgium
4. Take a step for Fairtrade in 2012, UK
5. Fairtrade Towns in Lower Austria - 5 years of Fairtrade dedication, Austria

Wishing you every success in your Fair Trade Town wherever it may be!

Bruce Crowther
Fairtrade Towns Advisor
Fairtrade Foundation

1. 6th International Fair Trade Towns conference in Poznan, Poland
The City of Poznan and The Polish Fair Trade Association are happy to invite all Fair Trade Town representatives and campaigners to the 6th International Fair Trade Towns Conference to be held in Poznan on 10th-11th November 2012.  Further details including the Preliminary agenda for the conference will be announced at the end of May and the registration process will start on 1st June.

Although no Fair Trade Towns yet exist in Poland there are budding campaigns in Poznan and Gdansk and university seminars are planned in Warsaw, Katowice and Gdansk where students have already launched or are attempting to start Fair Trade University campaigns.

Poznan is delighted to host this international event in Poland where there is still relatively little recognition of fair trade. During World Fair Trade Day (see below) members of the Polish Fair Trade Coalition will organise events in several towns including Gdansk, Poznan, Cracow, Wroclaw, Gliwice, Katowice and Warsaw. For the last few years volunteers and activists from various NGO’s have come together under this coalition umbrella to hold open air events promoting all Fair Trade products and the FAIRTRADE Mark. 

This year as part of the Aware & Fair project the Polish Fair Trade Association (WFTO member) will take photographs of participants in Poznan and Gdansk standing next to a giant coffee cup while holding a speech bubble with the words “I support Fair Trade”. Fair Trade Town groups across the world are encouraged to take similar photographs in a prominent place in their community with the words “I support Fair Trade” written in their own language. The Fair Trade Towns conference committee would like to receive these photographs to help motivate and encourage supporters in Poznan in their campaign to become the first Fair Trade Town in Poland in time for the conference in November. All photographs should be sent to Tadeusz Makulski, the Fair Trade Towns Coordinator for Poland at: tadeusz.makulski@sprawiedliwyhandel.pl

2. World Fair Trade Day Breakfasts
In 2011 around 235,000 people in 22 countries held Fair Trade Breakfasts big and small using fair trade products.  This year World Fair Trade Day (WFTD) will be celebrated on Saturday 12th May and many countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and the UK will be holding Fair Trade Breakfasts on and around WFTD.

In Switzerland they will repeat last year’s success and hold breakfasts while wearing green; see the latest Campaign of the Season. The Czech Republic will hold “Férová snídaně ve vašem městě” (Fair Breakfast in Your Town) organized by the NGO NaZemi / OnEarth and they also hope to repeat the success of last year when 2,500 people took part in 41 events throughout the country. In France and Switzerland they are are looking to have live video links with fair trade breakfast events in other countries. In The Netherlands they are planning Fairtrade Breaks which can be a breakfast, lunch, dinner or high tea on and around WFTD and in the UK they will hold Fair Trade Breakfasts that highlight the importance of 100% Fair Trade Organisations such as Traidcraft and Divine Chocolate.

3. World Fair Trade Day Photo campaign, Belgium
Fair Trade Town steering groups in Belgium will be asking their politicians to show their support for Fair Trade in a photograph for World Fair Trade Day (WFTD). With a focus on coffee the national campaign is aimed at getting fair trade onto the political agenda in the run up to local elections on 14th October. They hope that political parties will be inspired by the dedication and enthusiasm of local fair trade supporters.

Fair Trade Town groups will visit their local councils before WFTD and ask the politicians to be photographed while holding a speech bubble with the words “Fair Trade coffee? It’s my choice” and a cup of coffee with a Fair Trade Towns sticker saying “I mean it!” thus publicly demonstrating their commitment for Fairtrade. The photographs will be gathered to make a large poster that will be sent to the regional and national authorities and a video will also be made that can be used to lobby politicians for a decent policy on fair trade public procurement (at the national and European levels). Publicity leaflets and a website have also been produced for more information.

Perhaps this is an idea that can be used by other national campaigns to lobby politicians internationally?

4. Take a step for Fairtrade in 2012, UK
Fairtrade Fortnight 2012 (27 February – 11 March) was launched in the UK with the news that estimated retail sales of Fairtrade products reached £1.32 billion in 2011, a 12% increase on 2010. This  is the result of many small steps taken by consumers in choosing to buy Fairtrade products that leads to major steps such as Morrisons supermarket chain switching to 100% Fairtrade sugar; a step that takes Fairtrade sugar to 42% of all UK retail sugar.

In 2012 the UK will see a Year of Fairtrade when supporters, consumers, businesses, schools, universities, faith groups and more will be asked to take a Step for Fairtrade at four peaks throughout the year, starting with Fairtrade Fortnight. A Step can be anything from buying a Fairtrade product for the first time to organizing a big event. Over 500,000 steps for Fairtrade have already been taken, which is well on the way to reaching the target of 1.5 million – one step for every farmer and worker expected to benefit from Fairtrade this year. Four of those Producers Tookie, Masauko, Massatoma and Moses were visiting the UK during Fairtrade Fortnight to see for themselves the steps being taken towards a fairer world. Read what they had to say in their blogs.

The next step in the UK Year of Fairtrade will be around World Fair Trade Day with further steps planned in the summer and autumn.

5. Fairtrade Towns in Lower Austria - 5 years of Fairtrade dedication, Austria
In January 2012 the city of Neunkirchen became the 30th Fairtrade Town in Lower Austria. The nomination marked a very successful development following 5 years of successful campaigning in Austria that has led to a total of 73 Fairtrade Towns. The lower Austrian Fairtrade Towns have initiated more than 150 events in the past five years and have helped to raise awareness of the need for fairer trade practices. More than 100 restaurants, bars and coffee shops have switched to use Fairtrade products in Lower Austria and the resulting good media coverage is proof that there is public interest in the Fairtrade Towns campaign.

A report will be published in June highlighting the efforts that the lower Austrian Fairtrade Towns have made in promoting Fairtrade. FAIRTRADE Austria will also run a competition calling on Fairtrade Towns to submit their best and most creative Fairtrade activities. The winners of the competition will be announced at a special event to be held in autumn 2012. The report and the competition will focus attention on the anniversary of the campaign in Lower Austria and is intended to motivate other lower Austrian towns to join the movement within the next five years.

We wish them every success!

Following the national success of their Fairtrade Breakfast in 2011 Max Havelaar, Switzerland aims to make it an international event in 2012. Last year 114,241 Fairtrade breakfast were held in Switzerland in an attempt to integrate Fairtrade products into the daily lives of consumers. This was a success with 15.5% consumer awareness of the event.

In 2012 Max Havelaar Switzerland are inviting other countries to be involved to encourage international cooperation and possible live video links between events. Interest has already been shown in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, South Africa and UK.

This year the theme will be ‘Fairtrade is what you make out of it’ to get more people to make something out of Fairtrade products for their breakfast, in order to demonstrate the wide range of Fairtrade products available and raise awareness on the impact of Fairtrade for the producer.

Fairtrade supporters, consumers, companies, restaurants and cafes etc will all be asked to organise public Fairtrade breakfasts with everyone taking part wearing green. The idea is based on the successful ‘White Dinners’ in France. Photographs and videos of the events will be shared within their communities and beyond.

Events will take place from 1^st April – 28^th May 2012 with the main emphasis on and around World Fair Trade Day (12^th May).

You are all welcome to take part in this fun event to promote Fairtrade!

For further information visit: www.fairtradebreakfast.ch

Or contact your national Fairtrade Organisation to find out how you can be involved.

Malmö, Sweden hosted the fifth annual Fair Trade Towns conference; five years after becoming the first Fairtrade City in Sweden. Over 200 delegates attended from around the globe, to share ideas and discuss how to go ‘beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns’.

You can find all the presentations and notes here, and the agenda here. The conference also prepared this statement to Rio +20 UN Conference - on behalf of the Fair Trade Towns movement.

Video from the conference is available to watch again here.

Next year will be the UN international year of cooperatives and as producer cooperatives lie at the heart of Fairtrade, 2012 should proove to be another good year that will see Fair Trade Towns go from strength to strength.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a happy and successful New Year!

Bruce Crowther
Fairtrade Towns Advisor
Fairtrade Foundation

1. Beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns – 5th International Fair Trade Towns conference in Malmö, Sweden.
The 5th annual Fair Trade Towns conference was held in the beautiful city of Malmö, which 5 years earlier became the first Fairtrade City in Sweden. The conference also took place in the same week Garstang in the UK celebrated 10 years since being awarded its world’s first Fair Trade Town status by the Fairtrade Foundation.

Over 200 delegates from 23 countries explored the way forward now that we have moved beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns. Joyce and Ebenezer from Kenya and Ghana respectively, provided the essential voice of the producers, which served to remind us why the Fair Trade Towns movement was founded and continues to exist today.

Developing direct links between Fair Trade Towns in the North and producers in the South was a topic that attracted much support and interest during the conference. Walter Alifo from Ghana spoke about how New Koforidua became the first Fair Trade Town in Africa, following ten years of promoting Fairtrade alongside their friends in Garstang, the world’s first Fair Trade Town (see below).

The conference also saw the international Fair Trade Towns movement unite behind a joint statement calling for trade justice that will be presented to the European Parliament and the Rio +20 UN conference in 2012.

On behalf of Fair Trade Towns everywhere I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the hosts of the conference from Fairtrade Sweden and the City of Malmö and especially the Deputy Mayor of Malmö, Lari Pitka-Kangas for his warm and compassionate participation throughout the conference.

All reports and presentations from the conference are available here and video can be viewed here.

2. Fair Trade Towns in the South
In December 2008 coffee producers in Alfenas came together to declare themselves as the first Fair Trade Town in Brazil. The following year farmers in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica declared their town a Fair Trade Town and as part of the 1,000 Fair Trade Towns celebrations in June this year the people of New Koforidua, Ghana declared themselves the first Fair Trade Town in Africa. In each case the five goals used by Fair Trade Towns in the North to promote the sale of fair trade products were adapted to promote fair trade in a predominantly producer community.

Although these declarations in the South present many difficult challenges ahead, all agree that we should embrace and welcome them into the international Fair Trade Towns family. The first task is to develop flexible guidelines based on the five goals that will enable Fair Trade Town campaigns to set up in any country across the globe. There are already moves to start up a national Fair Trade Towns campaign in Brazil where the FAIRTRADE Mark will soon be launched.

3. An East-West-South-North partnership to promote fair trade and the Millennium Development Goals
In 2011 the Agenda 21 office in Hanover initiated the project “Aware & Fair’ – city games and campaigns as a local reaction to the Millennium Development Goals”. This formed part of an EU program to raise awareness on international development policy linked to the MDG’s through specific action such as Fair Trade.

Hanover’s partners included their twin towns of Poznan (Poland) and Blantyre (Malawi) as well as Litomerice (Czech Republic) and Miskolc (Hungary) which had been involved in the international city network ICLEI for sustainable development for many years.

One of the aims of this 2 year project is to establish and expand the fair trade market in all the cities, in particular for products from Malawi e.g. nuts, tea, rice. This gained the support of Fairtrade Germany and the Polish Fair Trade Association as important cooperation partners.

The promotion of fair trade within the project has already helped contribute to the following achievements:
• Litomerice becoming one of the first Fair Trade Towns in the Czech Republic earlier this year.
• The opening of the first Fair Trade shop in Poland on 6th December.
• The launch of the Fair Trade Town campaign in Poznan expected to become the first Fair Trade Town in Poland in November 2012.
• The future launch of Fair Trade Towns in Hungary with Miskolc expected to become their first Fair Trade Town.
• During the project seminar in Blantyre in October the Fair Trade Towns concept was presented to representatives from the Local Authority and FLO certified small growers associations who showed a strong interest in developing a Fair Trade Town campaign in Blantyre.

Contact
Landeshauptstadt Hannover
Agenda 21-office
Silvia Hesse
Trammplatz 2
30159 Hannover
Tel.  ++49 511  168  4 5078
agenda21@hannover-stadt.de
www.awarefair.org

4. The world’s first International Fair Trade Visitor Centre opens in Garstang, UK
On Monday 21st November, almost ten years to the day since Garstang was awarded its status as the world’s fir Fair Trade Town, The FIG Tree opened in Garstang as the world’s first international Fair Trade visitor Centre. The FIG Tree will celebrate Garstang’s unique achievement and the international Fair Trade Towns movement by providing:

• A Fair Trade Exhibition - exploring the four interrelated themes; Fair Trade, The British Atlantic Slave Trade and its abolition, Quaker Heritage in North West England where Quakers were founded and Chocolate.

• A Fair Trade Café and Gift Shop - providing a community hub for both residents and visitors to Garstang using our triangular link with New Koforidua, the first Fair Trade Town in Africa and Media, PA, America’s first Fair Trade Town.

• Chocolate Making Events - using cocoa from New Koforidua and live video links.

• Fair Trade Way - Fairtrade refreshments, souvenirs and information for ramblers at the start of the Fair Trade Way; the world’s first long-distance fair trade heritage trail that links Fairtrade Towns between Garstang and Keswick.

This is a great opportunity for all  interested to share our experiences of the Impact of Fairtrade in our Communities since we are Fairtrade certified in 1996.

This is the first time we go to Europe to share how fair trade makes a positive impact in our communities of Perez Zeledon.   All this is thanks to the support and efforts of organizations and people like you who campaign for Southern producers to improve the living conditions of producers and their Communities.

Bruce Crowther
Fairtrade Towns Advisor
Fairtrade Foundation

1. 1,000 Fair Trade Towns and counting

Following the 1,000 Fair Trade Town’s joint declarations across the world in June, at the time of writing there are 1014 Fair Trade Towns in 22 countries across all six major continents. International Fairtrade Cities now include; London, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Brussels, Copenhagen, Oslo, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Vancouver and Wellington in New Zealand.

Find out more about the 1,000 Fair Trade Towns celebrations here.

Read letters of support for the 1,000 Fair Trade Towns from Mr Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, Ms Mercedes Bresso, President of the Committee of the Regions, and Mr Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee here.

Read the response to the ‘Make Trade Fair’ petition from Mr Ciolos, EU Commissioner for Agriculture here.

2. ‘Beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns’ – 5th International Fair Trade Towns Conference in Malmö, Sweden on 19– 20 November 2011

For 2011 the International Fair Trade Towns conference will explore how we move forward “Beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns”. Come to Malmö on 19-20 November to meet committed people from other Fair Trade Towns around the globe. Learn, discuss and get inspired!

On Friday evening there will be a get together and pre-registration before the conference starts at 9.30am on Saturday 19th November.
The conference will finish at 3pm on Sunday 20th November.
Attendance at the conference is free to Fair Trade Town representatives travelling from outside Sweden. Lunch is included as well as dinner on Saturday evening.

The conference will be hosted by Fairtrade Sweden together with the City of Malmö, the first Fairtrade City in Sweden.

Registration: Online at www.fairtrade.se or contact your national Fair Trade Towns coordinator.
Registration opens on 2nd of September and closes 8th of October.
For further details of the conference contact:
Linda Ålrud
linda.alrud@fairtrade.se
Emma Börjesson
emma.borjesson@malmo

3. Cross-border Fairtrade Towns

In January 2010 Hadrian’s Wall along the English – Scottish border became the first cross-border Fairtrade Zone with nine local authorities (including one in Scotland) declaring their support for Fairtrade. But it won’t be the last!

Since 2005 there has been a grassroots movement of people along the German, French and Luxembourg borders that have been working together to share common interests. When Saarbrücken became the first Fairtrade Town in Germany in 2009 they decided to direct their cooperation towards becoming a transnational Fairtrade Region. They hope to gain Fairtrade Region status in 2012 and there are presently two models being considered:

1.) Quattro Pole – A trinational network of four cities: Luxemburg, Metz, Saarbrücken and Trier.
Saarbrücken and Trier in Germany have already achieved Fairtrade Town status while Metz in France and Luxemburg are striving towards it. Once this is achieved they hope to get the Quattro Pole to sign an official common Charta.

2.) Euro district – A binational network between the Borough of Saarbrücken and the Northern Department of Moselle.
In December 2010 the Meirs Assembly took a unanimous deliberation for the Euro district to commit itself to Fairtrade. Since then a few local authorities on both sides, French and German are striving to meet the five goals.

4. Fair Trade Towns in Central Eastern Europe

September will see the declaration of the first Fair Trade Town in Central Eastern Europe when Litomerice will be nominated as the first Fair Trade Town in the Czech Republic with Vestin soon to follow.

Gdansk and Poznan in Poland are also running Fair Trade Town campaigns and Poznan hopes to gain status in 2012. The campaign in Hungary is still in the early stages but Miskolc is currently running a campaign. This is another example of cross-border collaboration as Germany’s Fairtrade City of Hannover is an EU project partner with Litomerice, Poznan and Miskolc. We wish them all every success!

Perhaps appropriately the first campaign of the season comes from Garstang, the world’s first Fair Trade Town, during a British walking summer.

The Fair Trade Way is a long distance footpath that stretches over 80 miles (130 km) from Garstang to Keswick in the Fairtrade County of Cumbria in the UK. This six day walk that starts and finishes in Fairtrade Towns also includes overnight stays in the Fairtrade Towns of Lancaster, Arnside, Kendal, Windermere and Grasmere.

Fairtrade campaigners first walked the route in 2009 to show that it was possible to walk between Fairtrade Towns, while eating and drinking Fairtrade products and staying in guest houses and hostels that support Fairtrade. Thanks to sponsorship from the co-operative and two years of route planning and historical research the Fair Trade Way was officially launched during the UK Fairtrade Fortnight in 2011. Particularly aimed at ramblers the campaign hopes to lead many others to take the Fair Trade Way and adopt a Fairtrade lifestyle.

Throughout history campaign messages have been brought to the attention of the masses by organised walks or marches; from Mahatma Ghandi’s Salt March in India to the farmers march in Nicaragua to protest about the disastrous fall in coffee prices. The Fair Trade Way literally provides the next step to link Fair Trade Towns together and help to keep up the momentum of a campaign once Fair Trade Town status has been achieved.

There are already moves to extend the Fair Trade Way in a southerly direction towards Wales, the first Fair Trade Nation and eastward along the World Heritage Site Hadrian’s wall, which became the first cross-country Fairtrade zone in 2010. The aim is to eventually create a circular footpath around the UK linking Fairtrade Town to Fairtrade Town. Interest has also been shown internationally so who knows where the Fair Trade Way will end up?

Visit the Fair Trade Way website at: www.fairtradeway.org.uk

On Saturday 4 June 2011 joint declarations in the following twelve towns and cities saw the number of Fair Trade Towns worldwide top 1000!

1. Whitehorse City, Australia
2. Kumamoto, Japan
3. Madrid, Spain
4. Kontich, Belgium
5. Bilzen, Belgium
6. Herne, Germany
7. Delft, the Netherlands
8. Witney, England
9. Rutherglen, Scotland
10. Cambuslang, Scotland
11. Aberaeron, Wales
12. Greenwich,USA

Spain’s capital city Madrid joined the UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s constituency Witney, and Kumamoto in Japan, which declared as the first Fair Trade Town in Asia.  The event celebrated the growing people’s movement, now present in 22 countries across six continents campaigning for fair trade in the fields, on the high streets, in local schools, community groups and businesses.

Watch just a few of the highlights from the day here

To mark the 1000th Fair Trade Town, almost 500 individuals, organisations and Fair Trade Towns from 31 countries signed up to a statement calling on G20  leaders to ‘Make Trade Fair’. The statement calls for action to ensure “the current food system and agricultural trade flows contribute to, rather than hinder, sustainable agriculture and food security, in the South and in the North.” Fair Trade Towns around the world echoed the demand through local photo messages. The statement, supporting messages and photographs were sent to Mr Ciolos, EU Commissioner for Agriculture (and his resoponse: European Commission response to Make Trade Fair petition - ), Mr Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General and Agricultural Ministers ahead of the G20 meeting held in Paris on 22 – 23 June.

Congratulating the Fair Trade Towns movement on reaching the 1,000 milestone, EU leaders spoke out for Fair Trade. Mr Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, said:

“Let me (…) congratulate you on the Fair Trade Towns campaign with almost 1000 Fair Trade Towns worldwide involved, the majority being in the EU. This is a perfect example of good cooperation between local authorities, NGOs, volunteers and consumers, all in support of Fair Trade (…) Fair Trade is not about charity: it is about making trade work for development, in particular marginalized producers and workers in the South”.

To read the full letter from Mr Jerzy Buzek, and other letters of support from the President of the Committee of the Regions, Ms Mercedes Bresso, and from the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Mr Staffan Nilsson click here.

But the campaign to Make Trade Fair doesn’t stop with 1,000 Towns. Save the date and get ready to join participants at the 5th International Fair Trade Towns Conference in Malmo on 18– 20 November 2011 to explore how we move forward “Beyond 1,000 Fair Trade Towns”.

Save the space in your diary and watch this space for details!

Just a few of the faces behind the rapidly growing grassroots movement in the UK explain how it started, what it’s all about, what Fairtrade Towns achieve and how anyone, anywhere can be part of it.