Canterbury District Fairtrade Network

Whole World Fair 2009 starting Friday 30th October: Details

Canterbury District Fairtrade Network is a coalition of local organisations, faith groups and individuals. We have been campaigning locally since 2004 and working with Canterbury City Council to promote Fairtrade in the district of Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay. Our first objective was to achieve Fairtrade Zone status for the district. For this we needed to meet the five conditions laid down by the Fairtrade Foundation nationally: The local council must pass a resolution supporting Fairtrade, and agree to serve Fairtrade coffee and tea at its meetings and in its offices and canteens. Fairtrade products must be on sale in a specified number of local shops, cafés and restaurants. Fairtrade products must be used by a number of local work-places and community organisations. There must be a campaign to attract local media coverage and popular support for Fairtrade. A local Fairtrade steering group must be convened to ensure continuing commitment to Fairtrade zone status. These conditions were all met and in January 2006 we were delighted to learn that we had achieved recognition as a Faitrade Zone.

That status has to be renewed annually, so we need to maintain progress on promoting Fairtrade in the district. As a group we keep track of the availability of Fairtrade goods locally and publish this information in our Fairtrade Guide. We organise publicity stalls and other events to raise awareness and encourage local people to buy Fairtrade products. We welcome the involvement of anyone who would like to help. There are many ways you can do so: Buying Fairtrade products whenever possible Asking shops, cafes and restaurants that you visit to stock Fairtrade products Find out more about the Network's activities by joining the Network's Email List Join the network and help out on our stalls and with our campaigning Introduce Fairtrade products in your place of work or study Tell us of any schools, workplaces, local organisations, churches or faith groups which use Fairtrade products. If you'd like to join the network mailing list, please e-mail us.

We are also running a parallel campaign to promote the use of local produce. The two aims are not in conflict, but complement one another. Buying things like tea, coffee, chocolate and tropical fruits, and paying a fair price for them, can help to lift communities out of poverty in Africa and Asia and Latin America. Importing across the world those foods which have traditionally been grown in Kent is bad for the local economy and bad for the environment. To encourage the use of local produce, we have included a section on local farm shops and farmers' markets in the Fairtrade Guide.