Strictly Fairtrade Dancing

We loved watching all the pictures come in on Twitter of the Strictly #Fairtrade dancing in London. Fairtrade's Barbara Crowther tells us more about it.

For more Fairtrade news as it happens, follow @fairtradeuk on Twitter. Here are some of our favourites.

The Tea Ladies hit Downing Street

Sarah Brown shared this great picture with her followers on Twitter today, following a visit from the Fairtrade Tea Ladies. It was also written about on the Prime Minister's official website.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of Fairtrade UK, also wrote all about it on her blog 'Inside Fairtrade'.

A gang of campaigning 'tea ladies' danced their way round London, with an inflatable giant tea cup in tow. They looked fantastic in their pink and blue pinnies and head scarves made in India from Fairtrade cotton by committed company, Bishopston Trading. I also danced along, together with Mr Henriksen from Chamraj tea estate in South India, and we ended up popping in on Sarah Brown at No 10 where Maggie Darling joined in the fun too.

to read more go here.

So what is the Big Swap anyway?

The Big Swap is a big deal. It's the way the nation is celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight - and this year, everyone involved in Fairtrade wanted it to be bigger and better than ever before.

That's why we recorded a whole album just for it. The album includes an exclusive track with Paolo Nutini and loads of great covers of British classics recorded by some of Ghana's hottest talent.

All you have to do is go to cadburymusic.com and select which item you swapped this Fairtrade Fortnight and the album will instantly be yours to download. It's super easy and our way of saying thanks for supporting Fairtrade.

Let us know what you think.

Big Swap Songs

Love Fairtrade? Love music? Well you're going to love Big Swap Songs.

Glass and a Hall Full Records had masses of fun with Tinny recording Zingolo to celebrate Cadbury Dairy Milk's move to Fairtrade. And now, for Fairtrade Fortnight it's even more exciting. The team have partnered with Paolo Nutini and a bunch of brilliant Ghanaian musical talent to bring you an entire record of musical joy.

And all you have to do to get it is swap any product for Fairtrade and let them know over on cadburymusic.com.

Olive Oil - Palestine

Forty-two year old olive farmer Mahmoud Issa looks out across the 15 hectares of olive groves that provide his living.

‘The zaytoun, the olive, means everything to us,’ he says. ‘My father and my grandfather farmed on this land, and now my children work alongside me harvesting. Our olive oil is of the highest quality because of the fertility of the land and we use traditional farming methods.’

In Palestine, the zaytoun or olive tree is revered and symbolizes many things, including family, land and hope. But it doesn’t just have spiritual significance, olive and olive oil production is a vital source of income for many farmers in the region. Often the land has been in their family for generations and extended families rely on olives for their livelihood.

Harvesting olives is very hands on work - ti's done by either shaking the tree or climbing it. Then they are transported to a nearby oil press. The olives must be pressed as quickly as possible and then stored in stainless steel containers to control the level of acidity. The farmers in the Anin Co-operative use the local village press, storing the olive oil in mobile storage containers before transferring the oil to their exporter in Jenin. Among the first things the farmers say they would like to buy with their Fairtrade premium are more mobile storage containers to retain the quality of their olive oil. The Anin Co-operative is one of the first farmers’ organisations to be certified and is a member of the Palestine Fair Trade Producers Company (PFTPC). In all eight co-operatives, consisting of about 265 farmers, have just become Fairtrade certified.

As this begins to happen in 2009, Mahmoud says the benefits to small farmers like him will be significant.

‘In the past, we were often forced to sell our products at a loss due to the economic situation, but we are hoping that Fairtrade will help re-establish small farmers’ faith in the sustainability of the agricultural sector in Palestine.’

The oil is available from Zaytoun, Equal Exchange, Traidcraft and Essential Trading amongst others. Look out for the oil on supermarket shelves soon.

Citrus fruit in South Africa

African sunshine is the key ingredient for the msot tasty, juciest oranges, clementines and lemons. The sunshine may still be the same as it was years ago, but for the famers in the Luthando Farms, life is very different to how it was during apartheid and before Fairtrade.

Fairtrade Coffee - Costa Rica

It's probably  no exaggeration that most people will happily spend their lives enjoying a morning cup of coffee without ever considering where their coffee beans came from. That's why today we'd like to share some awesome facts about the coffee growers in Costa Rica. Here are 6 things we'd like to share about the coffee growing co-operative community called Gerardo Cooperativa Llano Bonito and the bigger co-op it is part of:

1. It has 532 coffee-growing members, 40% of whom are women - which is absolutely massive when you consider that hte entire village's populate is just 2,000.
2. Their farms are at an average altitude of 1,500 metres, high in the mountains of Tarrazu in San José state where they grow the renowned and sought after coffee grade known as strictly hard bean.
3. The co-op is one of nine members of Coocafé, a secondary level co-op that represents 3,500 farmers across four states.
4. Coocafé’s mission is to promote the social and economic development of its members’ communities through environmentally sustainable coffee production. It processes, markets and exports its members’ coffee and provides a range of agricultural services and training.
5. Farmers have struggled with low prices from conventional sales during the coffee crisis of recent years, which has dictated the way they use their Fairtrade premium. The group has decided to return 80% of the premium to its members as a cash payment. The remaining 20% funds three main programmes: education, social/community development, and environmental protection.
6. All in all Coocafe represents 3,500 farmers, including 256 women, and indirectly benefits 15,000 people

Fairtrade Bananas - St Lucia

In the UK we really love bananas, in fact, they're our most eaten fruit, with over 40 million eaten every single week. It's no doubt that at this scale, Fairtrade bananas makes a world of difference to those who farm it.

We've already written about and shared a short film documents two Fairtrade certified banana producer organisations, BANELINO and ASOBANU in the Dominican Republic.

Now we'd like to share this interview with, Conrad James, a banana farmer in St Lucia. He's interviewed by Patron of the Fairtrade Foundation, George Alagiah below.

A celebration of all things Fairtrade

In the run up to Fairtrade Fortnight we're going to turn our attention to the amazing Fairtrade products out there - one at a time. Over the next couple of weeks we're going to share the stories behind the products, the farmers who's lives are changing and the impact every purchase decision has on those who grow our food.

We'll be looking at coffee, bananas, citrus fruit, brasil nuts, cotton, tea and olive oil.

Hopefully it will offer inspiration to make the Big Swap during Fairtrade Fortnight. 

Meanwhile, you can register your Big Swap here.

10 things about Cadbury

We've just been sent this great article that was published a few days ago on Mirror.co.uk.

It goes through "10 things you need to know about Cadbury".

The list inclues factual gems like number 4: The Cadbury signature logo is based on the signature of Richard’s son William, who also joined the business. As well as some other facts you're probably quite aware of like number 8: Cadbury Dairy Milk became fair-trade certified last year, but has sourced its cocoa from Ghana for a century.

You can read the whole piece over here.