ST ANDREWS HAS BEEN A FAIRTRADE TOWN
SINCE ST ANDREWS DAY 2005

Latest news

• The St Andrews Fairtrade Town Campaign is part of a wider network promoting Fairtrade.  Read the March issue of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum newsletter to learn more.

• The March/April issue of St Andrews in Focus, the magazine for St Andrews, featured this article about the on-going St Andrews Fairtrade Campaign.

• UK sales of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark grew an amazing 92% in 2007 to reach £493m, having jumped 45% from the previous year in 2006.

• The Sustainable Living Fair took place on Thursday 13 March in the St Andrews University Student's Union, St Mary's Place.  The fair was bigger than last year and many students and others visited the Fairtrade Campaign stall.

• Fairtrade Fortnight 2008 ran from 25 February until 9 March.  Check here for events that took place in St Andrews, information around the UK and to view photographs.

• St Andrews has successfully retained its Fairtrade Town status, following review by the Fairtrade Foundation.  Thank you to all the shops, workplaces, cafes and restaurants, and community organisations that continue to promote Fairtrade goods and products.  We only retain our Fairtrade Town status because of your committment.

• Congratulations to all who took part in our 'Spot the Certificate' competition during St Andrews Festival Week 2007.

Here are the winners with their prizes!!!

• Look out for St Andrews Fairtrade Town certificates in shops and cafés where fairly traded products are available.
  
  
• With the recent addition of Bottoms Up to our directory there are now 48 shops, cafés, restaurants and churches in St Andrews where you can buy fairly traded products. This means that there are now over 80 entries in the St Andrews Fairtrade Directory, the others being workplaces and community organisations where Fairtrade tea and coffee is regularly used, and hotels and B&Bs where guests are served Fairtrade beverages.
  
  
• Fairtrade Fortnight 2007 in Feb/March saw a huge range of activities in St Andrews, including the screening of Jan Nimmo's latest film 'Pura Vida? at the opening of an exhibition of her woodcut portraits of banana workers at the Byre Theatre, and a talk by St Lucia Fairtrade banana producer, Conrad James. 

• Scotland is to become a Fair Trade Nation. Members of the St Andrews Fairtrade Town Campaign joined nearly two hundred other members of the fair trade movement from all over Scotland at the Dewar Centre, Perth, on 27th January to discuss a mechanism for establishing a Scottish Fair Trade Forum to take the project forward.

• St Andrew's Festival 2006, 28 Nov - 1 Dec: exhibition of entries for the primary schools Fairtrade collage competition, won by P6/7 Kingsbarns Primary School, runners-up P6 Canongate Primary School.

• September 2006: Fife Council puts up signs announcing 'A Fairtrade Town' on the four main routes into St Andrews.

• The University of St Andrews became a Fairtrade University on 12th April 2006.

Our aims

The St Andrews Fairtrade Town Campaign aims to promote awareness of fair trade and to encourage a constant increase in the supply of and demand for Fairtrade products.

What we do

We publish a directory of accommodation, shops and cafés and restaurants in St Andrews where Fairtrade products are available and of workplaces and community organisations which have pledged to support Fairtrade.

We were instrumental in having St Andrews declared a Fairtrade Town on St Andrews Day in 2005.

We organise events during Fairtrade Fortnight each year in St Andrews.

After the success of this year's Fairtrade Fortnight, we're still campaigning – currently we're working to on two fronts - encouraging the supermarkets to stock more Fairtrade products and increasing the number of B&Bs and hotels where guests are provided with Fairtrade tea and coffee. Meanwhile you can demand Fairtrade in St Andrews. And if your workplace or community organisation uses fairly traded drinks but isn't in our directory, please let us know!

What are Fairtrade products?

Fairtrade products carry the FAIRTRADE Mark to show that the producers receive a fair and stable price for their labour, along with extra income to improve their lives and to allow them to conserve their local environments. Without these, millions of families who produce our tea, coffee, bananas, cocoa beans, sugar, wine and footballs, etc, are vulnerable to market forces which ignore their rights to even the most basic essentials. The FAIRTRADE Mark is awarded to products that meet international Fairtrade standards set by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). Producers registered with the FLO receive a minimum price to cover production costs and an extra premium for the local community.

What is a Fairtrade Town?

A Fairtrade Town is a community which has made a commitment to Fairtrade.
Firstly, there is significant awareness and understanding of the concept of Fairtrade.
Secondly, Fairtrade products are available, bought and used in commercial and community organisations.
Finally, a group exists to maintain and increase awareness and sales.

Five specific goals have to be fulfilled before Fairtrade status is granted by the Fairtrade Foundation. These include gaining support for the campaign from the local council, getting Fairtrade products into a number of shops and cafés/restaurants, encouraging local work places and community organisations to use Fairtrade products in their regular tea breaks and meetings, and attracting media support and coverage for the campaign.

(last updated March 2008)