During Fairtrade Fortnight 2008, Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, visited Keswick. On Tuesday 4th March she was one of the speakers at ‘Words by the Water’ the annual Literary Festival held at the Theatre by the Lake. The next morning she was up early for a working breakfast with members of the Keswick and District Fair Trade Campaign followed by a reception at a local hotel for Fairtrade campaigners from Keswick and other Fairtrade groups around Cumbria. Harriet praised the work of the Cumbria Fair Trade Network and its Coordinator, Joe Human, and described Cumbria as a ‘shining light’ in the Fairtrade campaign.

The New Accommodation Guide from Cumbria Tourism indicates Fairtrade hotels, guest houses and B&Bs. The symbol is the letters FT. To be awarded the FT mark in the Guide, the accommodation provider must, as minimum:

• serve Fairtrade tea and coffee in the Dining Room and in the bedrooms, exclusively or as an option
• be committed to the principle of Fairtrade
• have Fairtrade literature available

If you or your friends are looking for accommodation in Cumbria, please look out for the FT symbol.

News from 2007:
Archived news

On Monday 10th March 2008, the small neighbouring villages of Caldbeck and Hesketh Newmarket became the seventeenth community in Cumbria to gain Fairtrade status. The certificate, awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation, was presented to the group by Elspeth Sherwen, Chair of the Cumbria Fair Trade Network. Cumbria has more than twice as many Fairtrade cities, towns, villages or zones than any other county. They are: Kendal, Millom, Windermere & Bowness, Brampton, Keswick, Carlisle, Lake Parish, Penrith & Eden, Grange-over-Sands, Egremont, Kirkby Lonsdale, Ulverston, Gosforth & Wasdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Coniston & Torver, Cockermouth and now Caldbeck & Hesketh Newmarket.

Estimated retail sales of Fairtrade products in the UK have reached half a billion pounds according to the Fairtrade Foundation. Fairtrade bananas are the best selling Fairtrade product with sales topping £150m, an increase of 130%. 1 in 4 bananas sold are now Fairtrade and we eat 3m Fairtrade bananas a day. Fairtrade coffee sales rose 24% to over £117m. Items made with Fairtrade certified cotton increased from over half a million to just under 9.5m units. Fairtrade tea rose 24% to just over £30m. And recent commercial developments mean Fairtrade tea should account for a tenth of tea sold in the UK by the end of 2008. More importantly still, says the Fairtrade Foundation, in 2007 the real volumes (by weight or number) of produce more than doubled over 2006. More details from: Fairtrade Foundation