Fair City

Regina Joseph from the Windward Islands (holding the big banana) was a guest speaker at the ceremony launching Bristol as a Fairtrade City in March 2005.

Bristol has the highest awareness of the FAIRTRADE Mark in the UK, around seven out of ten of us recognise the logo. Our city is one of a growing movement of 130 Fairtrade towns and cities trading fairly with nearly five million farmers, workers and their families in 58 developing countries.

With more than 1,000 Fairtrade products now available, Fairtrade sales have risen at nearly 50 per cent per annum from a mere £2.7m the launch in 1994 to £140m in 2004. Fairtrade bananas now account for five per cent of total UK banana sales. Bristol and other Fairtrade Cities have seen a real 'grass roots' consumer movement for economic and social change. Total ethical spending in 2004 rose a figure of £25.8 billion, an increase of 15 per cent in a year when household expenditure rose by 3.7 per cent. The will has hit the till and ethical consumerism has a growing future.

Growing numbers have also taken political action for fairer trade. The Trade Justice Movement lobbied Westminster twice in 2005, organising the largest ever mass lobby of parliament to call for reform of trade rules and nearly a million votes for trade justice were cast. Consumers are voting with their wallets and politicians must now follow that lead. If Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Latin America increased their share of world exports by just one per cent, it could lift 128 million people out of poverty. Consumers and citizens acting together are an irresistible movement.

by Roger James

Fairtrade in Bristol 2006

In October 2003, a group of organisations called the Bristol Fairtrade Network (thatís us) started work to make Bristol a Fairtrade City. In March 2005 that aim was achieved.

On 4 March 2005, Bristol received its Fairtrade City status with a Fairtrade breakfast on board the ss Great Britain. Regina Joseph, a Fairtrade banana grower from Dominica in the Windward Islands, presented certification to the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Simon Cook. In return, she was given a Bristol Blue Glass coat of arms of the city as a sign of partnership and commitment to Fairtrade for the future.