Best Fairtrade Town Group in Wales?

Well, they certainly work together like a well-oiled machine, and the lady from Cardiff, Helen, seemed impressed!
It was a well-attended meeting at Tomatitos last night, packed onto the gallery at the back of the pub, where the white wall could be used as a film and slideshow screen. Free teas and hot chocolates were available, as well as nuts (all Fairtrade, of course), for a donation to the Malawi flood appeal. Shared Interest, a group that gives loans to Fairtrade projects, and which the Hay Fairtrade Group have been supporting for several years, promised to double whatever was collected to go to Malawi.
There was a film and two speakers - the film showed tea farmers in Malawi, describing their work and what they have done in the co-operative with the Fairtrade premium. They were very proud of their ambulance, which had saved the lives of the daughters of one of the narrators when they came down with malaria, and another speaker was very pleased with the motorbike they'd been able to buy. Sadly, the floods were very bad this year, and several of the people in the film had lost their livlihoods as a result. They work so hard to better themselves, and then something like that comes along and knocks them right back to the beginning again.

The first speaker was Allan Saidi, a sugar farmer from Malawi, who explained how sugar is grown, including the part where they bend the canes to frighten away wild animals before they harvest it, including snakes and elephants! They have bought two trucks with the premium, which deliver fertiliser to the farmers, and take people to hospital, and collect farmers to take them to the co-operative meetings.
They have also built a primary school - Allan's daughter (there was a picture) is six, and goes there, and he seemed so proud. The government provide the teachers when they have built the school.
There's also a clinic, and the largest hall in the district is being built at the moment, to be used for community events. He also showed pictures of his old, mud brick house, and his smart new house.
Another thing they have bought is a tractor, to dig irrigation trenches and for other farm work, which means they no longer have to hire tractors at great expense, and so have that extra cash in their pockets.
Bore holes have also been built, which means the women no longer have to go to the river to collect water - where there are crocodiles. Allan said that a couple of the farmers have lost their arms to the crocodiles.
When they started there were just over 100 farmers in the co-op, and now there are over 700. He was elected secretary, which means he also has responsibility to see that the farmers abide by the Fairtrade standards in their farming, such as health and safety, and sending their children to school rather than working on the farm.
However, the future is uncertain for them, due to EU rules which are coming in in 2017, which will favour European sugar beet farmers over African sugar cane farmers. One of the things he was doing while in the UK was trying to lobby MPs to help.

Oliver Balch was the second speaker, because he has recently been on a visit to Nicaragua to visit Fairtrade coffee plantations and a sesame seed producer. There they have been having problems with a disease which attacks the coffee bushes - but the fact that they are not isolated, but gathered together in co-operatives, means that they can get back on their feet faster.
They were also proud of what the Fairtrade premium had brought to their districts - including Eco-latrines! There's a strong environmental component to the Fairtrade co-ops there, including retaining areas of cloud forest instead of clearing them for extra growing space.
They have been installing new wood burning ovens in the houses, with chimneys. They are more efficient than the old style, and cut down on the cases of TB in the community, which was exacerbated by the smoke. One village has installed a communal oven, where the women can bake cakes and biscuits to sell in the local market to make extra money.
They are very keen on expanding local markets for their crops as well as the export trade. They also run courses on women's rights and similar issues.

One of the questions that came up at the end of the talks was why some crops from a co-op were sold as Fairtrade and some were sold as ordinary crops on the open market, even though it was all Fairtrade. The reason in a lot of cases is that they cannot find enough buyers for the Fairtrade produce, so have to sell the rest where they can.
In West Bengal, apparently, the best tea is sold at a premium anyway, to places like Fortnum and Masons, leaving the second best, ordinary tea for the Fairtrade market, and then whatever they can get for the rest. So, they need to expand the Fairtrade markets, and they can only do that if people here in the UK buy Fairtrade products wherever they see them.

Allan Saidi spent this morning at Hay School, talking to the children there, which went very well. On Friday, there will be hot chocolate provided at the school, and on Sunday teas on the Cobbles by the Castle.

Fairtrade Sighting

Nice to see that there was a Fairtrade tea and coffee stall at this year's Wonderwool at the Royal Welsh showground.

Tea Ladies!

We were very lucky with the weather - the sun shone for most of the morning. We set up the tea trolley in the middle of the market, and Shepherds very kindly allowed us to put the urn we'd borrowed from the Cat's Protection League in their private kitchen at the back, and run in and out with hot water. We borrowed the tea trolley from the Youth Group at the Community Centre, and all went down there to dress up and decorate the trolley. Which we then had to wheel through town, with Jo ringing her handbell to announce our coming.
We gave out something like 125 cups of free Fairtrade tea (the Indian Princes variety from the Co-op, who generously gave us supplies). Most people were supportive; some already drank Fairtrade tea, and others commented on how nice it was.
Derek and Tim, both in drag, took one of the big teapots and a stack of cups, and went round the local shops. Derek/'Ophelia' had a long wig and lipstick smeared roughly round his mouth and a brown overall and skirt, and Tim had balloon breasts under a purple dress with a red and yellow wig. We got James into a purple wig and a pinny, but that was as far as he would go. The rest of us girls had turbans and overalls or pinnys.
Photographers turned up from the Brecon and Radnor Express and the Hereford Times, and Marches TV turned up at the end, but didn't really have time to do any filming.
And Les who runs the market asked if we'd like to do it again next week, because it had brightened the place up!

Tea Ladies

We all went round to Jackie's house last night. It wasn't exactly a meeting - and Jackie had laid on some lovely nibbles and drinks. What we were actually doing was comparing costumes for Thursday, when we're all going to dress up as tea ladies and give out free cups of Fairtrade Tea at the Thursday Market. We're borrowing a tea trolley from the Youth Club at the Community Centre, and getting hot water from Shepherds.
The look we were searching for was Nora Batty/Amy Turtle, rather than anything more glamorous (does anyone else remember Crossroads?). Three of us will be cross-dressing, though James refuses to wear a skirt on the grounds that it will be too cold. There was at least one purple wig in evidence for use on the day (and it'll keep someone's head warm!). The rest of us will be wearing the sort of turbans that Hilda Ogden, another style icon for the occasion, used to wear.
It should be a lot of fun, as long as we don't freeze! As Tim, who will be joining us, said, "People will remember the weird ladies who gave them tea, and associate that with the Fairtrade label - and hopefully they'll then want to drink more Fairtrade tea!"