Aiming for a fair deal (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Aiming for a fair deal

SWINDON...AND PROUD OF IT: WHEN Angela Overton- Benge buys chocolate biscuits, she gets them from Swindon's Oxfam shop. She says her 25-year-old son Thomas reckons they're the best he has ever tasted.

For Angela, however, their yumminess rating is incidental to the fact that on the packet there's a Fair Trade logo, indicating that the cocoa and sugar that went into them were grown by farmers who are getting a fair price for their produce.

The 59-year-old former market stall holder, who for seven years has been an ordained Church of England cleric, wants official Fair Trade status bestowed on the town, which in 2002 failed for the second time to win city status.

She believes it would boost the Swindon . . . and Proud of It campaign, which is being promoted by the Adver.

But to get this official recognition she and fellow campaigners Lynn Forrester, who is Swindon borough council's Agenda 21 officer, and Barbara Aftelak must prove that the town has a registered minimum number of shops, restaurants, cafes and other outlets selling Fair Trade goods.

The products include tea, coffee, chocolate, muesli, dried fruit, sugar, fruit juices, vegetable oils, wines and even flowers.

"We are almost there," said Angela, who lives at St August-ine's vicarage at Rodbourne and works as chaplain to economic life in Swindon.

"We need just one more caf and one more retail outlet, and we're hoping to get them by Christmas. But we've come to a bit of a dead stop."

The target figure 15 cafes and 30 retail outlets is based on the town's size. Bradford-on-Avon, which already has Fair Trade status and is far smaller than Swindon, had a much lower goal to achieve.

The three women have been canvassing potential supporters.

Those already on the list range from small businesses like the Pulse wholefoods shop and the Octagon cafe to Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons, Somerfield, the Co-op stores and Starbucks and Costa coffee bars.

"It doesn't cost shops money to do this. There's no membership fee. They just have to offer their customers the option of choosing Fair Trade items as well as all the other things they sell."

Even offices can take part. "Nationwide, for instance, are almost totally Fair Trade in their staff restaurant and vending machines."

They are helping to ensure that growers in Third World countries receive a justly negotiated price for what they produce and are not exploited by large-scale farmers and marketing groups.

The Fair Trade Foundation was founded in 1992 and the first products appeared in British shops two years later.

For more information about Fair Trade goods call Angela on 01793 491454, 01793 618986 or 07962 665908.

Shirley Mathias