How Garstang won its Fairtrade battle

Bruce Crowther made Garstang the first ever Fairtrade town. Photo: Tom Bamber

By Jonathan Bacon

March 11 2009

Standing proudly at the boundaries of Garstang, Lancashire, are road signs declaring it to be the world’s first Fairtrade Town.

In February 2001, the Co-operative Group provided funding for these signs to celebrate the efforts of the residents, businesses, clergymen and councillors who had succeeded in turning their tiny market town into a pioneering movement for the benefit of millions worldwide.

Coming out in support of the Fairtrade label, introduced in the UK in 1994 on the simple premise of guaranteeing farmers a fair price to meet the costs of sustainable production, campaigners in Garstang hit upon the idea of encouraging all schools, restaurants, shops and places of work to stock or use Fairtrade products as a means of raising awareness about the plight of producers in the developing world.

With more than 570 Fairtrade towns, cities, villages, islands and boroughs now in existence in 18 countries across the world and many more seeking to gain this status, it seems the community-based initiatives of Garstang’s model remain a strong means of encouraging Fairtrade support.

“It’s a grass-roots movement and that’s very, very important,” says Bruce Crowther, Garstang resident and head of the Fairtrade Foundation’s Towns Movement. His tireless work in launching the project was recognised in January with an MBE. “You can’t become a Fairtrade Town unless everyone is involved and once people have grabbed that concept they seem to run with it.”

This community engagement was first brought to bear in Garstang by simply familiarising local people with Fairtrade products, the vast majority of which had been introduced into the mainstream market via local Co-op stores.

A major initiative, spearheaded by the Garstang Oxfam Group, was to involve the town’s schoolchildren in a number of projects that focused on the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farming co-operative of New Koforidua in Ghana, a partner in the Fairtrade marked chocolate brand Divine.

In 2000, Co-op stores were the first to have an own-brand product that carried the Fairtrade mark when it launched its own-label Fairtrade chocolate using Kuapa Kokoo produce.

Persistent lobbying resulted in Garstang’s collective pledge to actively support Fairtrade at a parish council meeting in April 2000. The vote to become a Fairtrade Town was ratified as a global movement a year later when the Fairtrade Foundation launched the Fairtrade Town Initiative in September 2001. Garstang also became officially twinned with New Koforidua, facilitating trips in both directions to promote Fairtrade.

Looking back, Bruce still remembers the crucial role played by the former United society during the campaign. “When we started out we only had about £10 in the kitty, so we really relied on local businesses for support. We’ve only got a small Co-op supermarket in Garstang but it’s always been very supportive of us and the Co-op has always been behind Fairtrade Towns right across the country,” he says.

Most important for Bruce has been the Co-op Movement’s active involvement on Fairtrade Town committees and from a personal point of view, its support for Garstang’s link with Ghana. Last year work was completed on the Co-operative House in New Koforidua, named in honour of the Co-operative Group’s role as the major sponsor of the project. This community building will house Garstang’s Fairtrade campaigners during future trips and serve as a focal point for ethical fact-finding tours.

Garstang campaigners have witnessed first-hand the benefits of the Fairtrade agreement in and around New Koforidua where the social premium, paid in addition to the Fairtrade price, has provided essential investment for local infrastructure including sanitation improvements and the installation of water pumps.

Bruce knows, however, that there is still a long way to go before all members of such communities can reap the full benefits of Fairtrade. “In a place like New Koforidua it’s not as simple as saying it used to be poor and now it’s rich,” he says. “There are many thousands of members of the co-operative there and of all the cocoa they produce only a small proportion will be sold in the Fairtrade market. That’s not the fault of the farmers — it’s simply because not enough people are buying Fairtade chocolate.”

Indeed while the Fairtrade Towns network continues to grow and new initiatives and links develop worldwide, the priority for Bruce, the Co-operative Movement and all Fairtrade supporters remains fixed on encouraging more and more consumers to make the ethical choice.

• The Co-op Writing Prize 2009 was held in association with the MA Magazine Journalism programme at the University of Central Lancashire, the Mid-Lancs Membership Committee of the former United society and Co-operative News. This article was judged the overall winner and Jonathan Bacon received a cheque for £500 from the Mid-Lancs committee while five runners-up will each receive £100 to assist with course fees.