Fairtrade Town

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The Fair Trade Towns campaign is the result of a grass-roots citizens movement that started in the UK in 2001 (see below). It allows citizens to get together in order to self-proclaim their town (or other local geographical area) as a region that complies with a few general Fair Trade criteria, that can be adapted from country to country but which retain their main elements.

In some countries, the Fair Trade Town became a status awarded by a recognized Fair Trade certification body (i.e. the

goods. By extension, the organizations also award the statuses of Fair Trade City, Fair Trade Village, Fair Trade Zone, Fair Trade Borough, Fair Trade Island, Fair Trade Country, and Fair Trade University.

History

The Fair Trade Town campaign was first launched in 2001 in

As the activities at Garstang gained wider attention, the

Fairtrade Foundation

launched a set of Fair Trade Town Goals and an Action Guide to encourage others to follow in the town's success. During the 2001-2006 period, over 209 British towns were awarded the Fair Trade status by the Fairtrade Foundation. In October 2009 448 British towns and 312 towns worldwide (in total 760) were awarded the Fair Trade status. In November 2012, there were over 1200 worldwide.

In an attempt to replicate the success of the

, was launched jointly by several Fair Trade labelling initiatives.

In November 2006, the first ever European Fair Trade Towns conference was hosted at London Southbank University. The goals of the conference were to

• identify and develop procedures to strengthen the links within and between local communities and private and public organisations;
• develop strategies to enable the UK Fair Trade Towns model to meet the requirements of each individual country.

Following the success of the first event, a second Fair Trade towns conference was subsequently held in Brussels in January 2008. The sixth conference was held in Poznan (Poland) in November 2012, and the 2013 and 2014 international conferences are foreseen to take place in Oslo (Norway) and Kumamoto (Japan), respectively.

There are currently Fair Trade Towns in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. The list of Fairtrade settlements is a more comprehensive current list.

Criteria

Formal guidelines have been produced jointly by several

status, an area must meet five criteria (exact numbers and proportions vary from country to country):

• Local council passes a
  canteens
  .
• A range of (at least two) Fair Trade products is readily available in the area's
  cafés/catering
  establishments.
  • Target for number of retail outlets: population of < 10000 - 1 retail outlet per 2500; population < 200000 - 1 retail outlet per 5000; population of < 500000 - 1 retail outlet per 10000.
  • Target for number of catering outlets: population of < 10000 - 1 catering outlet per 5000; population < 200000 - 1 catering outlet per 10000; population of < 500000 - 1 catering outlet per 20000
• Fair Trade products are used by a number of local work places (estate agents, hairdressers, etc.) and community organisations (churches, schools, etc.)
• Attract media coverage and popular support for the campaign.
• A local Fair Trade steering group is convened to ensure continued commitment to its Fair Trade Town status.

Other initiatives

In 2002 The

and Wales agreed the criteria for becoming a Fair Trade country.

The draft criteria for a "Fair Trade Nation" are:[1] Archived 2013-02-02 at the Wayback Machine

• 75% of the population should purchase a Fair Trade product every year.
• 40% of people regularly buy Fair Trade products.
• All local authorities have active Fair Trade groups working towards Fair Trade status.
• 55% local authority areas with Fair Trade status with 10% annual increase in following years

Wales became the world's first Fair Trade nation in June 2008.

See also

• Transition Towns
• List of Fair Trade settlements

References