Fairtrade Christmas Market

 This year's Christmas Market is the same weekend as the Hay Winter Festival.  As usual, it will be held in the Buttermarket.

Also as usual, Tools For Self Reliance will be there, as well as Jump4Timbuktu and the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees.  They will be joined by Fair and Fabulous, who sell ethically sourced gifts, homeware and accessories, toys and plastic-busting products.

This will also be an opportunity to buy Fairtrade olive oil, dates, almonds and more from Zaytoun.  All their products are grown by Palestinian farmers, so that will be a good time to show practical support for the Palestinian people.

Fairtrade Fortnight Coffee Morning

 It's Fairtrade Fortnight, and I passed by the Fairtrade stall on the Thursday Market this morning.

They will be holding a coffee morning at Eighteen Rabbit, the Fairtrade shop in the middle of Hay, on Thursday 9th March, from 10am to 1pm, with a special guest all the way from Uganda.

Jenipher has been organising Ugandan coffee farmers (many of them women), and they now market their own brand of Fairtrade coffee, which is available at Eighteen Rabbit.  She will be talking about how the coffee is made, and there will be samples (suggested donation is £1).

Fairtrade Christmas Fair

 The annual Christmas Fair will be held in the Buttermarket on Sunday 27th November this year, from 10am to 4pm, to coincide with the Winter Festival.

Tools for Self Reliance will be there, as well as other regulars Zaytoun (Palestinian olive oil, almonds and dates etc.), Jump for Timbuktu, and Love Zimbabwe.

Other stalls are Fair and Fabulous, selling gifts, homeware and accessories, toys and "plastic busting products".

Eachday Shared sells handicrafts, stationery, batik, toys, jewellery and more, and The Plastic Free Shop sells gifts, recycled wrapping paper, parcel tape and colourful twine!

Fairtrade at the Festival

 Hay Festival is back with in-person events this year, and today Fairtrade Hay is in the Buttermarket with the usual interesting mix of Fairtrade stalls.  It's a bit of a drizzly day, so the hot drinks will be welcome, but quite a lot of people are about in the centre of town.

Fairtrade Fortnight on Market Day

 

Here's Ange, who sells Zaytoun products from Palestine, and Chris of Haymakers, in charge of the Fairtrade Hay stall on the Thursday Market today, with a selection of products on display and lots of information about what Fairtrade is and how it can change people's lives for the better.

Fairtrade Fortnight

 We're in the first week of Fairtrade Fortnight, and Eighteen Rabbit has a basket of goodies in the window for a prize raffle.

The theme this year is Climate Justice, in the aftermath of the COP26 talks last November.  The message is that there is still time to mitigate the most extreme effects of climate change, but only if pledges are turned into action.  Big changes to the global economy are needed.  On the personal level, people can buy Fairtrade products, but action also has to be taken by governments and multinational companies.  The Fairtrade Foundation is already planning what they want to do for COP27, which will be held in Cairo.

Farmers in poorer countries are already feeling the effects of climate change.  In Honduras, Guatamala and Nicaragua farmers have seen their crops of coffee, cocoa, honey and bananas devastated by extreme weather events.

Fairtrade Christmas Fayre

 This was held on the Sunday of Hay Winter Festival in the Buttermarket, and a lot of regular supporters were there - like Love Zimbabwe, Zaytoun, Tools for Self Reliance, Hay2Timbuktu and Jump4Timbuktu.

At 2pm, a minute's silence was held for the 27 people who drowned in the Channel as they attempted to reach the UK.