Portsmouth Fairtrade Forum 

Chair’s report 2002 – 2003

The Forum has met 12 times, including its first meeting on 25^th April 2002.  This includes one joint meeting with Portsmouth World Development Movement.  Twenty-nine people have attended the meetings, including the 5 WDM members who attended the joint meeting.  What have those meetings achieved?

At that first meeting, we decided that our aim was to promote the idea of Portsmouth becoming a Fairtrade city.  We examined the criteria necessary to achieve Fairtrade city status and tried to identify sympathetic allies but for the first six months we spent most of our time agonising over how we would ever get the Council to pass a motion in support of Fairtrade.

In the event it turned out to be easier than we had supposed and, thanks to the deputation made by Ben and Hayley, the resolution was passed (almost unanimously) on 26^th November.  Thanks are also due to Ben and Hayley for their work in collecting messages of support from celebrities and also for their efforts in raising awareness of Fairtrade in schools and amongst young people.

We formally adopted our constitution in October and I would like to thank Sue and Barbara for agreeing to take on the roles of secretary and treasurer respectively.  Thanks are also due to Neil who has provided articles and press releases thus ensuring media coverage by local publications as well as radio and TV stations.

The launch of the new Fairtrade Mark in October provided a good opportunity with the Banana Bonanza Action day for publicity and Margaret is to be congratulated on her versatility (the best banana in the bunch) and thanked for the reliability and thoughtfulness which I particularly appreciated again, later, during Fairtrade Fortnight.

Thanks are due to those who contributed to the stall that we had in the cathedral at the end of November for the Our Earth Our Destiny conference and we are indebted to Owen for including so much of our material in Oxfam’s display in Central Library in January.

I am grateful for the opportunities that I have had to speak to other groups about Fairtrade, eg Albert Road Traders’ Association, People & Planet, Methodist and Anglican church groups, and the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Business Environment Forum.  It was also a privilege to be invited to talk at the Lord Mayor’s coffee morning and I would like to pay tribute to the tremendous amount of work that has been done by Brian Partridge (ably assisted by Alison Herrod) – who has been appointed as the Council employee with responsibility for putting the Council’s resolution into practice.

I feel that we should be proud of what we have achieved so far, especially as, prior to the Council’s involvement we have had to rely solely on our own donations.  Where do we go from here?  We have just been awarded a Council grant of £500 to enable us to make a significant impact in the Carnival and we are awaiting the result of an application for funding from Awards for All.  We have also been promised support from Fyffes and much interest has been generated by the articles that have appeared in the Council’s own publications.

It is my personal conviction that it is possible for Portsmouth to gain Fairtrade city status within the next twelve months and we need to develop an action plan towards that end.

Work is in hand to complete a database of the availability of Fairtrade products in the area and it is my hope that it will not be too long before we have our own web-site.  I believe we have a role in encouraging other local groups like the ones in Havant and the Isle of Wight (and possibly Fareham) but we must not be deflected from the constant need to make the general public aware of our message and increase the demand for Fairtrade products in local shops.

Apart from the carnival we have One World Week in October and next year’s Fairtrade Fortnight (March) as main focal points.  Let’s start thinking now about how we can ensure that we make a lasting impact and let us never lose sight of the fact that all that we have achieved so far has been the result, not just of the last twelve months, but of the faithful, unstinting, unsung work of a faithful few, those who have laboured for years in organisations like Oxfam, Traidcraft and WDM.  We are harvesting the results of all their efforts in preparing the way for us and we thank them.                                                                                     Christine M^cMillan    April 2003