The first major event on 2 March was a great success, producing a lot of discussion. Taysir Arbassi, director of Zaytoun, and Riziq Abu Nasser, an olive farmer, came to the Milner Hall to give a talk Palestine – a story of Fair Trade under Occupation in which they told of the difficulties of producing olive oil in Palestine and the problems associated with exporting it.

On the following day a ‘Big Brew’ event was held in St Mark’s Church, Oliver’s Battery, which was very well attended and raised over £200 for Traidcraft Exchange.

The main event of the fortnight was a double bill. It started with Helen Carter, Regional Board member of the Co-operative, giving an excellent talk on Co-operatives and Fairtrade – a perfect blend.

The talk was followed by a well attended gala dinner organised by students at the University of Winchester at which £450 was raised for Oxfam Unwrapped and the Fairtrade Innovation Fund.

The dinner was sponsored by a number of organisations.

The Network’s annual Fairtrade lecture in co-operation with the University took place at the West Downs Business School on Wednesday 7 March. The lecturer was Helen Carter, Chair of the Andover Fairtrade group, owner of the Fair Trade shop Fayres Fair at Weyhill, and Regional Board member of the Co-operative and member of the Solent Area Committee.

This year is the International Year of the Co-operative. The movement was born in Rochdale in 1844 and is based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Co-operatives aim to make a profit but also to improve the lives of its members and their community. The Fairtrade movement has been very largely based on the forming of co-operatives, linking small producers, enabling them to pool resources and to plan and negotiate more effectively. So the Co-operative movement in the UK has quite naturally been committed to Fairtrade from its first emergence. It was the first retailer to launch its own-brand Fairtrade products; by the end of 2013 as many as possible of its own-brand products will be Fairtrade certified.

The Co-operative works closely with its own producer groups, providing additional funds for their community development over and above the minimum Fairtrade premium. Examples quoted were the Kibagenge Co-operative in Kenya, where over 11,000 smallholders are being formed into five new co-operatives, working towards Fairtrade certification, diversification of products, and better access to markets, and Coobana, a co-operative of Fairtrade banana producers in Panama, where community-wide access to clean water, sanitation and green technology is being supported.

Helen emphasised the breadth of the Co-operative’s activities. A micro-generation scheme ‘lendwithcare’ provides small loans, many to women or women’s groups in developing countries, which can transform lives and often bring a rapid return of the loan. A Fairtrade-funded school in Chile has developed regular skype links between its students and those of a Southampton school.

Lively questions and discussion followed the talk.

The picture shows Joy Carter, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winchester, Helen Carter, the speaker, and Charlotte Bailey, chairman of Winchester City Fairtrade Network.

Gala dinner

Helen’s lecture was followed by a Gala dinner organised by Events Management students at the University. The delicious four-course meal comprising local and Fairtrade ingredients was enjoyed by nearly 100 guests. Much of the food had been donated by local producers, who introduced each course by speaking about the product, and great support had been given by Lainston House and its chief chef Andy MacKenzie, in drawing up the menu, preparing the food, and training a group of students who faultlessly served the meal. The whole evening was a tour de force.

It was a privilege to be visited during Fairtrade Fortnight 2012 by two representatives of Zaytoun, a UK-based body working with over 50 farmers’ co-operatives in the West Bank in Palestine. Taysir Arbassi is the Director of Zaytoun in Palestine, and Riziq abu Nasser an olive farmer in the village of Deir Istyn, with 90 olive trees, some over 2,000 years old. The well-attended meeting, at the Milner Hall, was hosted by the St Peter’s Justice and Peace Group.

The brief olive season is critical to the farmers, providing their resources for the whole year. Until the early 2000s they had no problem in marketing and selling their products, particularly in the Gaza strip and the Gulf states. These areas are now closed to their products and they have faced considerable problems even in marketing more locally. Zaytoun was set up in 2004 in co-operation with British sympathisers and has successfully opened the UK market to their olive oil and other products. This involved the farmers in various changes in their production methods to meet European requirements, and this was facilitated by the forming of collective co-operatives; they also gained Fairtrade status. The initial cost to the farmers was more than compensated by a rise in the price they received from £1 to £7 per kilo, and having a more secure outlet, and they have also benefitted from the Fairtrade premium.

But the olive farmers still face many problems. An illegal Israeli settlement has been built close to Riziq’s village and sewage from the settlement runs through their olive fields, maiming and killing trees. Although new farming techniques enable olive trees to grow at a much faster rate than previously, new trees take at least 15 years to become economically effective. New roads carrying fast cars run through farms and villages with no provision for safe crossing by farmers going to their fields, and there have been many fatalities. Large areas of Palestine have been cleared of olive trees on grounds of security; 2 million trees have been uprooted since 1978. Many problems are still put in the way of the transport of the products; all must go through Israel, and there are numerous stops and check, so that travel to the port takes 15 days rather than two.

Several Zaytoun products (including olive oil, olives, couscous and dates) can be purchased in Winchester’s Fairtrade shop Fuzzi’s in Parchment Street. The oil is also sold at the Badger Farm Sainsbury’s, and can be ordered from Traidcraft, or from local churches running Fairtrade stalls. Buying these products is the most effective way of helping these farmers, contributing to strengthen their economy and to build their self-respect.

For more details see www.zaytoun.org.

Nearly four years ago the Competitions Commission found that supermarkets transfer ‘excessive risks and unexpected costs’ onto their suppliers. For instance they can order a set quantity of goods from a supplier and at the time of delivery can cancel part or all of the order without compensation. This affects both our own local farmers and Fairtrade and other overseas suppliers, and can drive them to the verge of bankruptcy.

MPs from all three main political parties support the introduction of a supermarkets watchdog, or Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), and a parliamentary bill has been drafted and scrutinised, but for lack of parliamentary time it has gone no further. A Groceries Supply Code of Practice was set up in 2012 but has no teeth.

We are asked to write to our MPs asking them to urge the inclusion of the bill in the next Queen’s Speech, and for the GCA to have the power to fine supermarkets who break the code and to launch investigations based on any credible evidence, including from third parties.

At the Campaigning Day we were encouraged to write a ‘poem’ for inclusion in a Valentine’s Day card to out MP on the subject; ours follows!

As I am sure you know the Winchester MP is Steve Brine and you can write to him at The House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.

The talk by Rosemary Dunhill and David Lloyd at the AGM on 21 November 2011 was about a holiday, which took place in November 2010. It was one of a series of trips arranged by Traidcraft with the overall title of ‘Meet the People’ Tours. It covered a relatively small area in what is a large country, five times the size of the UK, but the area visited had many of the contrasts of the country – between densely populated and sparsely populated, temperate and very hot, fertile and desert, first world and third world. Huge problems of poverty and inequality remain, many the legacy of the apartheid years, but we saw how Fairtrade, along with government and other initiatives, were slowly addressing these problems.

We visited Fairhills, a very extensive Fairtrade wine-making co-operative with 22 participating farms, where the members have a major role in decision-making. The wine can be purchased at Sainsbury’s and the Co-op; the Co-op is a major customer and benefactor. We visited the outlet of their craft co-operative, set up to help the women to develop another income stream, and the café, where our waitress told us of the transformation Fairtrade had brought to their lives. Day care centres, youth clubs, sporting facilities, health care and much more have been provided from the Fairtade premium with additional help from the Co-op – and back in England we discovered that Fairhills sponsors Big Issue sellers both in South Africa and here!

Further north, in the outskirts of the Kalahari desert, we visited the Eksteenskuil Agricultural Co-operative, where the primary product is raisin grapes used by Traidcraft in geobars, muesli and other products. Our guide had been brought up in Pretoria, moving to this very hot and poor area after marrying a black farmer as soon as the law permitted. The Fairtrade premium has enabled the scattered farms to be connected to the electricity grid. The co-operative has also purchased a pool of tools and equipment for hire by the farmers.

In an area with 80% unemployment we were shown a rose geranium essential oils plant recently set up by the government on the banks of the Orange River. And we were entertained by a wonderful group of Nama (bushman) dancers, using this means not only to bring in a small income but also to preserve and share their culture and language, almost stamped out in the apartheid years.

At the Heiveld Co-operative, near Nieuwoudtville in Namaqualand, made up of 63 small scale farms, we saw a rooibos tea plantation and met some ladies who had diversified this with building a small group of traditional huts as guesthouses. The Fairtrade premium has enabled the farmers to develop their business, particularly business initiatives for women, and support local schools and transport.

Further south again we visited Beautifulgate, an orphanage for children with HIV/Aids which had expanded to provide a community development programme for young people in this very deprived area. This is a non-governmental organisation with some funding from government and various trusts; it also runs a child sponsorship scheme. And we were taken to Kaya Mandi, a township largely comprising shacks with again high levels of poverty and unemployment but a strong community spirit. We visited a school and were given lunch in a ‘homestead’. It is clearly on a sort of alternative tourist route, and so forms another way in which some income is being brought into an area of very great need.

Two more Fairtrade visits concluded our tour. Koopmanskloof was our second winery, and here members of the co-operative had shares not only in the farming business but also in the winery itself. The wine is exported to several European countries and also to America and China, and can be bought from Traidcraft. Rainbow Fruits is a much smaller operation, providing employment for a small group of previously disadvantaged women in preparing and cutting dried fruit, which again can be bought through Traidcraft., The workers are all shareholders.

The tour was what it said – an opportunity to meet the people – and we felt we gained a lot of insight from seeing these different models of Fairtrade in operation.

Andy and Hannah hope that their shop will do more than sell their products. They would like to promote discussion, increase education, challenge habits and preconceptions, encourage new behaviour, and help people make informed decisions. It sounds like a pretty full agenda! It is great to come across young people with such vision and drive. They also plan to be a social enterprise, to donate money to local projects that increase sustainability and to local organisations which help raise awareness of sustainability.

Connect to Fuzzi website

Fairtrade fortnight ran from 28 February to 13 March 2011 and during the first week we had our banner across the High Street. This proclaims that Winchester is a Fairtrade City and that the University is a Fairtrade University.

The two main events were the talk by Toby Quantrill on Wednesday, 9 March, and the Fairtrade Open Day at the Guildhall on Sunday, 13 March.

The United Church were active, having a Fairtrade Food Shop open on each of the Wednesdays during the fortnight, and each day during the fortnight they served a cake made with fairtrade ingredients at their coffee shop. Did you see the giant fairtrade cup and banner outside the church in Jewry Street? They also had a Fairtrade Pancake Bake on Shrove Tuesday which fell in the fortnight.

If you were walking up the High Street at lunchtime on the first Wednesday of the fortnight you may have been offered a fairtrade banana by ‘Fairtrade Fergus’ who was dressed in a gorilla suit. For some reason most people refused to take a banana from him! He was there with Andrew Rutter who was handing out programmes of what events were on during the fortnight.

On Saturday, 5 March, Rosemary Dunhill and David Lloyd gave a talk in St Mark’s Church Hall, Oliver’s Battery, about their experiences meeting fairtrade producers in South Africa. On Tuesday, 8 March, there was the talk by Toby Quantrill which is reported elsewhere on this website, and on Thursday, 10 March, the Mayor of Winchester, Councillor Richard Izard, welcomed schoolchildren from All Saints Primary School, Winchester, to Abbey House. The children surrounded the house with bunting made from fairtrade cotton as part of the national attempt to produce the longest stretch of bunting ever made. The bunting was decorated by the children from All Saints School. Westgate School, and Lanterns Nursery School, Winchester and from six other schools around Hampshire.

A very successful fortnight was rounded off in style with the Fairtrade Awareness Open Day which included a fashion show. The event was organised by students from the University and held in the Guildhall. Pictures of this are shown elsewhere on this website.

Click here to see the full programme of events as published in advance of the fortnight.

Students from the University of Winchester put on an excellent show at the Guildhall on 13 March 2011 with information leaflets and stalls promoting and selling fairtrade goods.

Twice during the day there was a fashion show of clothing made with fairtrade cotton (and an extra model crept in on one of them).

We were pleased to be visited by Steve Brine, our Member of Parliament, and his family. Steve was pictured with the organisers of the event.

As part of Fairtrade Fortnight 2011 in Winchester Toby Quantrill, Head of Policy at the Fairtrade Foundation, gave a stimulating talk on the above subject.

In the struggle between the weak and the powerful, to do nothing is not to be neutral but to side with the powerful against the weak. Fairtrade is a way of siding with the weak and has been an incredible success story, especially in the UK, which is responsible for the a third of all Fairtrade purchases. It contributes to a wide mission of social justice. It achieved £1b of sales last year but does not simply aim to get more products on to the shelves. Fairtrade can’t do everything; it can and does do something; it can do more.

A report was commissioned from the National Resources Institute into the likely impact of climate change on some key Fairtrade crops at global level. They concluded that the global impact on cotton, cocoa, tea and bananas was all likely to be bad, although on sugar not all bad. But the study made it very clear that while global trends may be relatively predictable, at local level there is still complete uncertainty. If farmers are able to keep growing they could be helped by a long-term increase in global prices (albeit with more volatility and offset by rising costs of food and fertilisers), but only if they are in a position to capture that additional price.

Fairtrade’s strategy for climate change is a combination of research and development into climate change, along with a support programme; looking at the impact Fairtrade could make on climate change; and awareness and advocacy work.

Fairtrade provides a good route to diversification, a core part in adapting to climate change, helped through the Fairtrade Premium. Many farmers are investing in low carbon improvements. Fairtrade also encourages farmers to come together to share ideas.

The Fairtrade Foundation published a discussion document in 2009 on how the climate revolution must be a fair revolution. The Airmiles debate needs to be extended to a broader discussion based on ‘Fairmiles’ which includes consideration of social justice as well as environment. Flowers and green vegetables from Kenya are the only Fairtrade products which are air-freighted. Bananas have a very low carbon footprint. 93% of carbon emissions from a cup of tea come from boiling the kettle. Kenyan farmers have been encouraged to produce out-of-season vegetables for export to Europe and they should at least be given time to diversify to other products if this is no longer welcome.

It is desirable to lower the carbon footprint of the way the Fairtrade movement operates.

On climate change advocacy, there was a Fairtrade presence at the meetings at Cancun, through the producer networks, and there would be a Fairtrade presence at Durban, led by Fairtrade Africa.

Turning to wider issues of sustainable development, he identified three major issues: water and how it should be used, soil fertility, and biodiversity, where significant damage has been done. Environmental, social and economic issues are all crucial and need to work together. Inequality is increasingly seen as part of the equation; poverty cannot be solved unless this is addressed. The core challenges are the needs to produce more food/products with fewer resource inputs; to consume less and to consume better; and to distribute resources more equally. We need a model of consumption based on value rather than price, on quality rather than quantity.

Fairtrade is a real and practical global response to the challenge of sustainable development. It is about the redistribution of power, not just money.

Join us in this annual opportunity to celebrate and promote Fairtrade!

Look out for our new banner which will hang across the High Street throughout the first week of the Fortnight.

Planned events include:

Wednesday 2 March, 10.00am – 2.00pm: Fairtrade Food Shop at the United Church, Jewry Street

Wednesday 2 March, 12.00 noon – 1.00pm: Meet Fergus-the-Gorilla distributing Fairtrade bananas under our banner in the High Street

Saturday 5 March, 7.30pm: Meeting Fairtrade producers in South Africa, an illustrated talk by Rosemary Dunhill and David Lloyd, St Mark’s Church, Oliver’s Battery

Tuesday 8 March, 4.30 – 6.30pm, Pancake Bake in the United Church Hall, Jewry Street. Savoury and sweet fillings, including Fairtrade sugar, lemon, banana, chocolate etc

Tuesday 8 March, 6.00 for 6.30pm: Fairtrade and Climate Change: a Common Cause, a talk by Toby Quantrill, the Fairtrade Foundation Head of Policy, The Stripe, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road

Wednesday 9 March, 10.00am – 2.00pm: Fairtrade Food Shop at the United Church, Jewry Street

Thursday 10 March, 10.30am: All Saints Primary School children wrapping bunting round Abbey House

Sunday 13 March, 11.00am – 3.00pm: Fairtrade Open Day with stalls. Fashion shows at 12.30pm and 2.00pm, Courtyard Room, Winchester Guildhall

Sunday 13 March, after morning service: Traidcraft stall and serving of Fairtrade honey cakes, St Mary’s Church, Kingsworthy

The University of Winchester, which is a Fairtrade University, works closely with Winchester City Fairtrade Network. The last two listed events are held in partnership. The University is also organising its own series of events. For details see their website, www.winchester.ac.uk.

In addition to the events in the above sequence both the United Church and St Mary’s Church, Kingsworthy, are supporting the Fairtrade Foundation’s attempt to break the current Guinness World Record for bunting, with opportunities throughout the Fortnight to decorate flags with messages and images about Fairtrade. And the United Church’s regular Monday – Friday coffee bar (10.00 am – 2.00 pm) will include a Fairtrade Cake of the Day.

If you know of any other Fairtrade events planned for this fortnight, please let us know by e-mailing contact@winchesterfairtrade.org.uk so that we can add them to this list.