All posts by Marc Fowler

On the evening of Tuesday 11th January 2005, we were invited to give a presentation to Woodbridge Town Council about our campaign to make Woodbridge an official Fairtrade Town.  We gave a twenty minute presentation and answered councillors’ questions afterwards, before leaving them to start their meeting. One of our members stayed for the meeting to see what response there would be. There was some discussion over the matter, which brought up some objections relating to the effectiveness of Fairtrade, but a vote was cast, and the motion was passed, with eight votes in favour, three against and one abstention.

Fairtrade For Woodbridge is pleased with the response, and having the backing of the Town Council means another step has been taken towards becoming a Fairtrade Town. There is, however, still quite a way to go. The Town Council are now officially supporting the campaign, but the backing of Suffolk Coastal District Council is also needed in order to gain Fairtrade Town status for Woodbridge. Fairtrade For Woodbridge, and individual consumers (the general public) also need to encourage more local businesses, retailers and catering establishments to stock and serve Fairtrade products. If you would like to help in this, please email us.  We can provide you with literature and/or specially designed ‘Order Up!’ cards to leave with your local caterers and shop owners.

Saturday 4th December saw the official launch of the campaign to turn Woodbridge into an official Fairtrade Town. A special Fairtrade coffee morning was held at St John’s Church, with the Town Mayor Russell Geen in attendance. Many people came to this social and educational event, and enjoyed sampling Fairtrade products such as tea, coffee and chocolate, as well as a wide range of home-made cakes. There were stalls set up around the church, selling Fairtrade and other fairly traded products, and offering information on the issues of trade justice, and the concept of Fairtrade Towns. At eleven o’clock the Mayor officially launched the campaign by cutting a specially made cake with the FAIRTRADE Mark on, after giving a short speech on the benefits of Fairtrade and the worthiness of the initiative. The local steering group, Fairtrade For Woodbridge, were delighted with the response and the number of people who attended.

The following day, the group manned a stall at the Woodbridge Street Fayre, hoping to further raise awareness of Fairtrade and their campaign. They gave away free samples of Fairtrade products, and a selection of information sheets and booklets. Again, a higher than expected level of interest was shown, and another five hundred information sheets were snapped up.

The weekend showed how there really is a lot of concern over the issues of trade justice, and many people are already actively buying and supporting Fairtrade. Others supported the concept but did not know where they could buy such products, which goes to show how important it is for more shops and catering establishments to start stocking them.

The launch of the campaign has been extremely successful, and very encouraging to see just how many people are willing to see Fairtrade move into the mainstream market. Fairtrade For Woodbridge hope to carry on raising awareness of the issues it tackles, and encourage even more people and local businesses to consider switching to Fairtrade products, as quite simply, the more people buy Fairtrade products, the greater the number of producers in developing countries who benefit from Fairtrade will be.