Fairtrade Fortnight - 9th September – 22nd September

Fraser is a member of the Dundee Fairtrade Forum and is pleased that Dundee is again participating in Fairtrade Fortnight that runs from tomorrow - 9th September - until 22nd September.

The Fairtrade Forum has encouraged local schools, churches and community groups to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight. This year, it is 30 years since products with the Fairtrade mark first appeared on shelves in the UK.

As part of Fairtrade Fortnight, the University of Dundee is holding a curry tasting event this coming Wednesday - 11th September - at 12 noon - all welcome!

Fairtrade Fortnight 2021

Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 will take place from Monday 22nd February until Sunday 7th March.

As a member of Dundee Fairtrade Forum, I am keen to see Fairtrade Fortnight being promoted in the city.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 will focus on the growing challenges that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the communities Fairtrade works with. Farmers and workers in developing countries are feeling the impact of the climate emergency now despite having contributed to it the least. 

Fairtrade works to raise the voices of producers and prioritise what they need to respond to the environmental crises unfolding in already vulnerable communities. This Fortnight, the campaign will focus on the theme of ‘Choose the World You Want’ and to encourage people to use their voice to tell others about the challenges that farmers face from climate change. 

In 2021, Fairtrade Fortnight will feel very different.   Physically campaigning and meeting people will continue to be challenging but so many people want to continue to support Fairtrade through this time. 

Fairtrade Fortnight will be hosting an online festival bringing together schools, universities, businesses, supporters, campaigners and farmers from across the world to choose the world they want.

More information is available at the Scottish Fairtrade Forum website at www.scottishfairtradeforum.org.uk

Keep KitKat Fairtrade!

Nestle has announced that KitKats will no longer be Fairtrade. 

From October it will stop buying from cocoa and sugar farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, Fiji and Malawi on Fairtrade terms. 

That means taking away around £2 million of annual Fairtrade Premium payments, in the middle of a huge health and economic crisis. 

Farmers will be getting less for their hard work and have less control over how they spend their money.

As a member of Dundee Fairtrade Forum, I strongly believe this cannot be right, especially when Nestle turned a profit of over $10 billion last year. 

Please sign the petition to Nestle’s CEO that we want KitKat to stay Fairtrade at www.change.org/p/ulf-mark-schneider-nestle-global-ceo-keep-kitkat-fairtrade - many thanks!

Planet Fair Trade Competition

School pupils across Scotland can enter the Scottish Fair Trade competition for a chance to win Fair Trade prizes and have your posters/videos shared around the world – but you must enter by Friday of this week – 5th June 2020.  

Simply create a poster or video based on the Planet Fair Trade theme of this year's World Fair Trade Day.     

Full details at www.tinyurl.com/fairtrade-competition

Fairtrade Fortnight Celebration

As part of Fairtrade Fortnight, the Dundee Fair Trade Forum is delighted to invite you to its event ‘Come on into Fairtrade’ at Birchwood Food Emporium - Cafe, 28 – 32 Commercial Street on Wednesday 26th February at 5.30pm. 

This will be directly followed by the Dundee Fair Trade Forum’s Annual General Meeting, which you are all invited to attend. 

Dundee is Scotland’s first Fairtrade City and the Forum would like to encourage and support more local businesses in sourcing Fairtrade products. 

This event will include the opportunity to hear from Ian Alexander, owner of local business Birchwood Food Emporium – Cafe and Billy Miller from Scottish coffee supplier Coffee Conscience, about how Fairtrade is a ‘win win’ situation for all. 

We hope to be joined also by a Fairtrade cocoa producer, celebrating this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme of a living wage for cocoa farmers.  We can however promise the opportunity to enjoy some lovely samples of Fairtrade chocolate! 

Central and East Regional Fair Trade Session

The Scottish Fair Trade Forum is running a series of sessions across Scotland to give supporters a chance to find our more about Fair Trade.

It aims to make these sessions as informal and practical as possible: we want you to leave feeling energised and empowered with new ideas, connections and up-to-date information on Fair Trade.  

Sessions cover topics such as: 

-        Fair Trade campaigning in the climate emergency

-        Harnessing the power of social media for Fair Trade campaigning

-        Procurement

... and includes :

-        Opportunities to meet other supporters

-        Lunch and Fairtrade tea & coffee!

The Dundee event is this Saturday - 18th January - 11am to 1.30pm at the Dalhousie Building in the University of Dundee.

You can read more about this and book a place here.

Fairtrade Fortnight events at the University of Dundee @DundeeFairtrade

Meet the farmers - @DundeeFairtrade event - all welcome!

Scottish Fair Trade Nation Lecture 2018 - a reminder!

Scottish Fair Trade Nation Lecture 2018

Fairtrade: enabling sustainable, quality coffee from small-holder value chains

Monday 30th April at 6pm 

Lecture Theatre 1, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee

This year, Ewan Reid, Director of Coffee at Glasgow-based, Matthew Algie, one of the UK's leading coffee roasters specialising in sustainable sourcing will be speaker. 

With a 20-year Fairtrade heritage starting with the UK's first Fairtrade espresso in 1997, today nearly 90% of the company's sourcing is Fairtrade. Matthew Algie supplies coffee to the cafe and hospitality sector including Marks & Spencer coffee shops and around 2,500 independent coffee shops, bars and restaurants.

Ewan has worked for the company since joining as a graduate in 1993 and joined the Board in 2002. 

With a background in food science, he oversees a variety of business areas including roastery operations, quality assurance, green coffee supply chain, R&D and sustainability. A frequent visitor to Matthew Algie’s supply chain partner co-operatives in producing countries, he is also a member of Fairtrade International’s Coffee Advisory Council. 

At the Fair Trade Nation Lecture, Ewan will provide an overview of why Matthew Algie choose to use Fairtrade coffee. He will also explore the Fairtrade coffee market and the challenges and opportunities of the Fairtrade coffee system.

The lecture will start at 6pm and will be followed by Q&A and discussion. 

Tea and Coffee will be served from 5.30pm.    There will be drinks and refreshments afterwards. 

This is a free event.     All are welcome but please do register for a ticket on Eventbrite here.

Dundee Fair Trade Forum event tomorrow

UPDATE :  28th February - this event has had to be postponed due to adverse weather conditions

Fairtrade Fortnight event tonight

Fairtrade Fortnight events at the University of Dundee

Busy Tuesday ...

Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of attending a Fairtrade Breakfast at the City Chambers to mark Fairtrade Fortnight.    

It was an thoroughly enjoyable breakfast with pupils from local schools who are helping to promote Fairtrade in their schools and communities.    There was also an excellent presentation from St John's High School pupils.

Here's a couple of photos from the event :

Presentation by St John's High School pupils

Later in the morning, I met with a constituent and two officers from the City Development Department of the City Council to look at road safety for Blackness Primary School pupils and pedestrians generally crossing Perth Road near Pennycook Lane.    

It was agreed that the pedestrian crossing can be improved - by resiting the large utilities box on the south side of the crossing that obscures pedestrians from drivers heading west (see first photo below).    It was also agreed that, once funding is available, the crossing (see second photo below) will be modernised, with better signals with LED lights. 

Last night, I attended the latest meeting of Friends of Blackness at Blackness Primary School.   Friends of Blackness covers the roles of both Parent Council and Parent Teacher Association.    It was a very positive meeting with updates from Mr Ferrier, Head Teacher, about school activities, staffing update and the school improvement plan and a discussion about the structure of future meetings.    

I updated the group about the earlier site meeting and also the issue of improved bicycle storage at the school. 

Dundee Fairtrade Forum AGM

Fairtrade Fortnight Celebration Event for Teachers

The One World Centre in Dundee is holding an informal Fair Trade Café Conversations event on Wednesday 25th February at the Cairn Centre, 12 Rattray Street between 4pm and 5.15pm.  

There will be the chance to sample lots of Fair Trade goodies while chatting with others about Fair Trade opportunities, activities and resources for schools. 

To reserve your place at this free event, please contact Clare Fulton, Global Learning Adviser at the One World Centre - email clare@oneworldcentre.org.uk or telephone 454603.

Dundee Fair Trade Forum AGM

Women, Food, Film and Power - an event for Fairtrade Fortnight

The above event, featuring a free workshop and thereafter a double bill of films and discussion takes place at Dundee Contemporary Arts next Saturday 2nd March as part of Fairtrade Fortnight.   You can read more details about this event here.

Fairtrade Forum AGM

Dundee's Fairtrade Fortnight

Further to my recent update aboutFairtrade Fortnight in Dundee, there's still a number of events taking place at the University of Dundee up to 11th March - see below - and you can download this poster at http://tinyurl.com/uodfairtrade: