LOCHWINNOCH INTERNATIONAL AID NEWS

 

 

New Fairtrade Road Signs and group activities

Members of Lochwinnoch Fairtrade Group and Lochwinnoch Millenium Events Group (LMEG),  celebrated the recently installed Fairtrade signs at the main road entrances to the village. Bob Turner, Chair of the Lochwinnoch Fairtrade Steering Group, expressed his appreciation of “the continuing efforts that have been made by members of the Group to promote interest in Fairtrade products in the village as well as the financial support of LMEG and Renfrewshire Council which allowed us to get these signs in place as reminders of the village's recent Fairtrade status.” The local group will continue to host a wide range of events and initiatives promoting Fairtrade in the village. A new Fairtrade re-usable cotton shopping bag is currently on sale at several shops in the village for £2.50.

The Fairtrade Group will meet over the winter to discuss its future plans for how we can be more effective in promoting the Fairtrade message in Lochwinnoch. The group would welcome help from anyone with time or skills to help: if you wish to get involved, even in a small way, please contact Bob Turner at 843068 or robert.turner111@btinternet.com.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2009

The Junction, a major supplier of Fairtrade in the village, held two ‘Fairtrade’ coffee mornings which raised £80 and recruited some more Lochwinnoch fairtrade supporters. Another highlight was Ivan Minucci’s coffee tasting evening introducing guests to the aroma and taste of four distinct Fairtrade single origin coffees.  Ivan plans to repeat this venture so please let him know if you are interested. The money will go towards producing another  Lochwinnoch Fairtrade shopping bag, going on sale after Easter.

 

A packed Bowling Club audience loved the warmth of the group Quinteto Son al Son who played son, a 1920’s style of music still played in café’s and bars across Cuba. We raised £386 for The Music Fund for Cuba, whilst promoting Fairtrade goods in the raffle.  The talk by Cornelius Lynch, a banana farmer from St Lucia, described the introduction of Fairtrade schemes in the island and what a great improvement to farming nd village economics it had made. We now aim to develop a closer relationship with St Lucia after hearing the talk.

 

At least 140 local people joined the nationwide attempt to set a world record for eating Fairtrade bananas in 24 hours. Highlights of this were the pupils in three primary school classes (and their teachers!) each eating a banana; the many customers at Cucina Minucci who chose the banana themed items ,and a 'Go Bananas' event involving staff and young volunteers at the RSPB which also offered free Fairtrade tea and coffee to visitors. We are very grateful to the Co-operative store in Beith that donated the bananas for several of these events and which sells a wide range of fairtrade products throughout the year.

 

An exhibition of entertaining and stimulating  photographs taken by Trevor Leighton, was on show in Lochwinnoch Library; it highlighted the positive impact that buying Fairtrade products has on poverty and explained why the featured celebrities buy Fairtrade.

 

Fairtrade fortnight ended with a stall at The Castle Semple Centre selling a wide range of goods supplied by the Rainbow Turtle in Paisley ( the major Fairtrade hub in the West of Scotland). There was strong interest in this new initiative and we hope to appear at the Centre again. 

 

 

 

More Fairtrade Products becoming available

Fairtrade is no longer on the fringes of business. Tate and Lyle is committed to selling sugar bought on fair-trade terms and plans have been announced to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk by the end of Summer 2009. This move sets a new standard for the mainstream chocolate industry and will result in the tripling of sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana. It also means consumers will be able to enjoy Fairtrade ingredients in Britain’s top selling chocolate bar.

A Cadbury’s spokesman claimed “the Fairtrade Foundation and Cadbury believe we can get more people in the UK to buy Fairtrade products and achieve more for this cause … what’s good for the farmers is good for our customers and our business.” The Fairtrade Foundation and its international partner certification body, FLO-Cert, will be independently monitoring and auditing the supply chain against internationally agreed Fairtrade standards.

Cadbury will also be sourcing cocoa from Kuapa Kokoo with over 40,000 registered cocoa farmers across Ghana. Here fairtrade has allowed them to construct primary school classrooms, wells and corn mills. Selling cocoa to Cadbury on Fairtrade terms will increase their Fairtrade premiums, and therefore the range of farmer support and community development programmes.

 

Moving the campaign forward

 

Over the fortnight, the Lochwinnoch campaign group arranged meetings between local shops owners and the director of the Rainbow Turtle to try and extend the range of Fairtrade goods available in the village. We also hope that fairtrade aromatic rice from Malawi and jams from Swaziland will be available for sale in the village soon. If you want to know where to buy Fairtrade products, copies of the Fairtrade Guide to Renfrewshire for 2009, produced by Renfrewshire Council, are available in the Library, Post Office and all of the Fairtrade outlets in the village. More folk have registered as supporters of the Lochwinnoch Fairtrade campaign: households not already signed up are welcome to complete the forms available from the Junction.

 

Fairtrade Fortnight was a great example of how much can be achieved when many people work together to support a common cause. If you wish to help the Lochwinnoch Fairtrade Group in the future, please contact Bob Turner (843068).

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