AGM: Your chance to determine the future of the Forum
Please come along the Scottish Fair Trade Forum’s Annual General Meeting which will take place at the Dewars Centre, Perth on the 31st January from 11am – 1pm. This will be a great opportunity to hear about the achievements and successes of the Fair Trade Nation campaign since our last AGM and a chance to look towards the challenges ahead.
Those who would like to play a strategic governance role in how the Forum tackles future challenges and the direction of our Fair Trade Nation campaign can stand for election to our new 3-year Board; nominations are open until 15 January 2009 and elections will be held at the AGM. Nomination forms can be obtained by contacting our Board Secretary, Ben Millar at 'Board.Secretary' at 'sftf.org.uk.'
For more information on the election procedures please see ourwebsite.
Malawian/Scottish fusion band Moyenda will be performing a short acoustic session to kick off our AGM. They are a multicultural group who bring together many musical influences to create a contemporary sound with a strong African flavour. The Forum will give a 'Progress Report' for the last year, accompanied by a video clip of highlights. We will have a special closing speaker and there will also be opportunities to chat to fellow Fair Trade campaigners from across Scotland. If you haven’t been involved in a fair trade campaign or group yet, this is a great place to meet like-minded people and get inspiration. There’ll also be fair trade goody bags! See our website for latest information. A map of the conference centre's location can be found here.
Announcements Scottish Fair Trade Forum Board Nominations
Nominations for our next 3 year board are now open for our AGM on Saturday the 31st January 2009 to be held in Perth. To receive a nominations form please contact us. Further details are available on our website.
Scottish Fair Trade Forum Blog
Keep up to date with what is going on at the forum by reading Betsy's SFTF Blog. Leave comments on the blog and debate these issue with other Fair Trade campaigners from across Scotland and all over the world.
Fairtrade Fortnight
Plans for Fairtrade Fortnight are well underway at the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. For more information keep an eye on the website's events section or join our Facebook group.
Scotland's developing fair trade links with Malawi.
Special Report by John Riches of the Balmore Coach House
As part of the Scottish Government’s Malawi Development programme, Imani Development and the Balmore Coach House have been awarded a three year grant ‘to promote sustainable business growth in Malawi’, specifically through bringing 8-10 new products into Scotland over the next three years. Just before Christmas I visited Malawi with Simon Hess of Imani Development to assess the export potential of both food and craft products. There are rich possibilities to develop over the next few years. However, initially, we shall be concentrating on importing rice. Malawi is, by African standards, a densely populated land with some 85 % of the population deriving its living from agriculture. 90% of all farmers are small holder farmers and they contribute over 30% of GDP, yet often cultivate barely half their land.
The National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM), made up of 110, 000 small holder farmers, is takling this problem by providing competitively priced farm supplies such as quality seeds, fertilizer and chemicals and offering training in farming skills, irrigation, links to credit, and numeracy and literacy education. It also runs campaigns on HIV/AIDS and Gender Equality - 36% of membership is female.
NASFAM buys the rice from its members, processes it in their mill and sells to larger commercial buyers in Malawi. For us, buying through NASFAM will mean that the farmers will get a good price for their rice and that we will be supporting the Association and its work with the farmers and their communities. It will allows us to work with them to increase their production, thereby getting more land into active cultivation.
Trading as ‘Just Trading Scotland’, The Coach House and Renfrewshire-based partner Rainbow Turtle plan to bring into our new Paisley warehouse a range of food stuffs, starting with the excellent Kilombero rice, the Malawian favourite. We shall be marketing it to local councils for serving in schools. It will be accompanied by suitable publicity and teaching materials about the producers, explaining what access to international markets means to Malawians. The rice will also be available through wholefoods cooperatives, One World shops and church stalls.
What about Fair Trade accreditation? For craftworkers and groups of small holder farmers it will probably be easiest to work through COFTA, Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa which is linked to IFAT. This is an African initiative to promote Fair Trade on behalf of small producers in Africa. It may well prove to be a flexible means for accrediting smaller organizations and ones which work with smallholder farmers who are not closely organized. We will be looking to import products where as much value as possible is added in Malawi. No doubt this will bring its challenges, but also exponential benefits to organisations in Malawi. It also keeps Fair Trade rooted in its principles of development. Imani will be working with the groups whose products we plan to import to find the most appropriate form of FT accreditation and will be keeping closely in touch with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum on this issue.
