Yusuke, a student from Tokyo, visited Yorkshire on a fact-finding mission about Fairtrade Communities.  His interest is in international trade and development issues.  He came to Haworth to attend a meeting to plan future activities in the town and then joined in the Yorkshire Region Fairtrade event in Ilkley on 23rd September.  He attended the service at Bradford Cathedral on Sunday morning and enjoyed the music and singing.  He plays the trombone.  He will spend a month in Ghana visiting various Fairtrade and cocoa farming initiatives.

Mike and Yusuke

It is encouraging to know that the work of our community is noted not only in the UK, but worldwide.  Our actions count!

Mike de Villiers, Fairtrade Baildon

Haworth Fairtrade group has been given a boost by Rev Oli Preston who is keen to bring new ideas and involve young people. He was introduced to regular Haworth visitor Bruce Crowther, the founder of the Fair Trade Town movement who brought along Yusuke, a Japanese student doing a study of child labour and slavery.

Joined by other seasoned campaigners, the group gathered at Upstairs Pennybank House, with the iconic view down Haworth Main Street, where they discussed many activities and events that have taken place over the past 21 years. Rita Verity from Sonia’s Smile, founder of Haworth Fairtrade group and Haworth Machu Picchu (Peru) Twinning group, hosted the meet up. Also present were Joanna Fianu, chair of Fairtrade Lancashire and co-founder with husband Samuel, of a new social enterprise – Alls Fair Tours – offering trade justice-themed tours of Ghana as a way to promote income generation through tourism in cocoa-growing regions.

Rev Oli Preston, Bruce Crowther, Joanna Fianu, Rita Verity, Samuel Fianu, Mike De Villiers, Yusuke Yasuda

The majority of shoppers nowadays are aware of the importance of knowing the conditions in which their purchases are produced and crucially the hardships of the people growing and making them. The life changing benefits that Fair Trade brings and the massive shift towards ethical purchasing is due in part as a direct consequence of Fair Trade campaigning. With this knowledge, consumer pressure for corporations and businesses to adhere to strong ethical policies has benefitted both people and planet.

Along with the more commonly understood, safe conditions and fair pay etc, the Fairtrade premium ensures farmers receive the training to adapt and prepare for the rapidly increasing climate change which is causing a real threat to their crops, it’s hard to imagine a world without chocolate, coffee or bananas!

Exciting plans are also forecast for the future of the Twinning group in collaboration with Bradford University’s Archaeology department.

On 23rd September Fairtrade supporters from across Yorkshire (from Settle all the way to Hull) met in Ilkley for the first face to face conference since 2019.

There was a vibrant mood as Fairtrade Yorkshire celebrated its 10th birthday with a cake made by a supporter in Embsay Fairtrade Village.

Joanna Fianu told the conference about the 10th birthday of Golden Exotics, a banana farm in Ghana and the participants in Ilkley sent their congratulations all the way to Ghana via a video message.

The celebratory mood continued as the conference was informed of the newest Fairtrade community in Yorkshire, Settle and all the wonderful work which is taking place there to promote fairness in the global trading system.

Liz Roodhouse (Skipton) and Hilary Davies (Ilkley) advised the attendees on where they could buy fairly traded products in the region, recommending Fairer World, From the Source and Namaste, alongside online buying from True Origin. They showcased products from a range of companies including Whitaker’s Chocolates and Zaytoun.

Dr Mark Dawson (York St John University) then talked about his research on different religious communities coming together to work on Fair Trade, with a case study of Luton Fairtrade Town. Mark then led a discussion on Fairtrade communities working in partnership with other organisations.