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Telford & Wrekin Council have been showing their support for Fairtrade Fortnight with a stall selling Fairtrade goodies including crafts, jewellery, tea, coffee, cake, biscuits, chocolate and much more.

The stall was in Civic Offices on Monday 1 March, and organisers were delighted to have raised £111 over the course of a few hours.

If you missed the stall but would like to purchase Fairtrade products, supermarkets in the borough such as the Co op, Asda, Tesco, and Sainsbury’s sell a wide range of Fairtrade goods.

This year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme is the Big Swap, so take this opportunity to swap your usual tea, coffee, chocolate, biscuits, muesli, etc for Fairtrade alternatives!

All goods are provided by Shrewsbury Fair Trade, a non profit making enterprise run entirely by volunteers and their goods are provided through well established Fairtrade organisations, such as Traidcraft, which guarantee that the producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America receive a fair return for their labour to work their way out of poverty and provide other support such as:
• creating opportunities for poor producers
• ensuring trading practices are fair, both in terms of payment and prices
• ensuring that children are not being exploited
• ensuring there is no discrimination
• ensuring working conditions are safe

Cllr Veronica Fletcher is behind Fairtrade Fortnight, and hopes the campaign will highlight the importance of fair-trade products. She said, “Many of the products we depend on come from developing countries, for example tea and coffee. Yet growers of these goods find it hard to cover basic living costs because of the tariffs and inequalities in the international trading system.”

“Fairtrade guarantees the farmers a fair price for these goods and a sustainable and regular income. Therefore it is vital that as a community, we make a significant effort to buy as many Fairtrade products as possible, in order to benefit ourselves as well as the people who produce them.”

Find out more about Fairtrade Fortnight and the Big Swap by visiting www.fairtrade.org.uk