New Years Eve Green Quiz

Did you try the Green Planet New Years Eve Party Quiz at http://ow.ly/RpG6 ?

Then dream the dream for 2010. We plan to work harder than ever to bring fairtrade food to more and more customers in Ireland and UK, that is the Wish4 wish

Happy New Year.

Fairtrade Xmas confectionery assortment

Wish4 Fairtrade is launching its 400g Fairtrade confectionery assortment with SUMA Wholefoods in January, in time for Valentines Day, and Fairtrade Fortnight. RSP €4.99 its less fattening than Quality Street etc, and the small community of sugar cane growers in Kasinthula, Malawi, are better off as a result.

Topaz go Fairtrade on snacks

Topaz already offers Bewleys Fairtrade coffee in all its petrol stations in Ireland. And now its introducing the Wish4 range of Fairtrade baked snacks to go alongside. 6 options including Chocolate Brownie and a healthy Fruity Nut Seed Bar. The first 2 outlets to have them are the newly refurbished Newlands X, and Templeogue forecourts.

Munster Fairtrade student treats

After months of hard work it is now possible for students at Waterford IT, Cork IT, UCC, and Galway Mayo IT to lay their hands on Fairtrade Millionaire's Shortbread, Fairtrade Chocolate Brownie and even healthier treats like Fairtrade Fruity Nut Seed Bars alongside their Bewleys Fairtrade coffee. Thanks to Aroma Beverage Co in Cork who have taken the first step in bringing these products to their customers. Lots of others are trying them out as you can see from the debris left on this particualr boardroom table last week !

Fairtrade premium is nothing on this

People complain about Fairtrade products costing more. But, how do Sainsbury explain the price of own label chocolate eclair sweets at 67p and Cadbury equivalent at £1.28 ?? Paying a little extra for Fairtrade is so much more worthwhile. Like the new Wish4 Chocolate Brownie at €1.99 in Topaz forecourts in Dublin this week. Thats LESS than the non Fairtrade M&S version at €2.20 which actually weighs less !!

Bewleys offer Fairtrade Muffins

Bewleys in Cork have launched a new range of Fairtrade muffins and bakery snacks. The range includes 4 quality muffins, with real fruit and fruit sauce injections ! As well as Chocolate Brownie, Milllionaire Shortbread and Rich Fruit Cake; All Butter NOT margarine; Real Chocolate NOT 'choc flavoured coating' !!; and all in convenient case sizes of 15 and 12 for freshness and convenience. Checkout www.wish4fairtrade.com for more......

New Fairtrade Muffins in Waterford

Wish4 Fairtrade is getting together with Waterford IT & Bewleys on Friday Oct 16th to launch the new range of Fairtrade muffins. The day coincides with UN World Food Day, so its very appropriate we should encourage people to think more about where all their food comes from, and make sure those who do the work get paid fairly. Toffee, Chocolate, Lemon & Blueberry varieties all have sauce fillings, and made with sugar from the Kasinthula Cane Growers, near Blantyre in Malawi. These people also contrbute less than .75 tons of carbon a year to global warming while we clock up 17.5 tons. So bring on the muffins, and you can order your own from www.wish4fairtrade.com

Fairtrade price premium can be huge !

Sometimes the price premium on Fairtrade products seems rather excessive. Take a look at this ! FFI make most of the own brand instant Fairtrade coffee in europe. Their product sells in Tesco for €2.77/100g. The Nestle Nescafe Partners Blend sits next to it at a ridiculous €4.53/100g. Something not fair somewhere wethinks ??

Fairtrade prices

Some people get worried by the price of Fairtrade products. Well, Cadbury never increased the price of Dairy Milk when they launched it last month. And Starbucks coffee is the same price although ALL their espresso-based drinks (that's most - like Americanos etc) are Fairtrade in UK/Ireland. So it doesn;t necessarily cost more. Just make sure you know you're comparing like with like.

Best Fairtrade Town Awards 2009

Deadline for entering Best Fairtrade Town Awards - Ireland !! is 5th August, and the annual Fairtrade Towns conference is October 2nd & 3rd in Dublin. These are great events, and having been to Malawi myself as a result, and experienced what it means to buy Fairtrade at the receiving end, I can't encourage you enough to get involved, do the easy but important thing and see the difference it makes. Excellent materials avaialable at www.fairtrade.ie but lots of the companies who make the products also offer top quality materials, and its all FREE !

And then there's Fairtrade on You Tube...like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIr_9z6qSyw Hard to understand why we wouldn't buy Fairtrade really !

Fairtrade website launched

Today our sister website went quietly public. www.wish4fairtrade.ie is the main site for the 100% Fairtrade company that is Wish 4 Fairtrade. Customers will be able to buy direct and retailers will be able to deal direct with us, in Ireland and UK, from early August.

An exciting range of natural confectionery will retail for under €2.50/£2.20, and the new bakery range promises some great tasting coffee time snacks.

NOW is the time to sign up and get early warning, preferential offers, and the latest news.

The low price of Fairtrade

So how is the recession effecting the cost of Fairtrade ?

In 2005 Robert Roberts Fairtrade Roast & Ground DeCaff was €4.20 in Tesco Ireland. Today its €3.52. Great for the growers who still get the 'fair price'.

This week Superquinn have Cafe Direct 100g Fairtrade Instant for €3 instead of €4.


In Tesco Ireland its €3.99, BUT Tesco also have their own Fairtrade Instant at €2.29. That's over 40% less.
And that same Tesco Fairtrade Instant was €3.49 in 2005.

So, more great news for growers, because they are not effected by lower retail prices. So don't worry about them ! Its all good news for them really. And as the empty shelf in Superquinn shows, things are looking good for Fairtrade even in a recession.

Sainsbury Fairtrade Cafe - for Ireland ?

The Fairtrade thinking in UK is so much more developed than here in Ireland. Sainsbury has a rather tasty Fairtrade brownie, and chocolate cookie just made for its cafe. Nice ! We tasted both, then we went to the CoOp whose Fairtrade chocolate brownies come in neat bite size pieces for sharing. And it was good to see many more small towns committed to Fairtrade. We have a plan to bring a lot more than Fairtrade brownies to Ireland and beyond, but we have to start somewhere !

What's next at Wish4 Fairtrade ?

Have a look at a brief intro presentation about Wish4 Fairtrade...
http://www.slideshare.net/wish4fairtrade?type=mypage

A Taste of the World to Come !

New Fairtrade Products Approved

Today Wish4 Fairtrade received approval for its 1st 5 products. As well being Fairtrade licensed, the recipes are 'natural', made with NO artificial colours or flavours. So now we grown ups can enjoy natural Fairtrade toffees, mints and fudge for the first time !!

While Fairtrade is critical to growers of our basic food needs, here's something that's at least as critical to all of us

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:HdDrfAxCZOQJ:transitionculture.org/2009/05/04/coming-soon-the-international-premiere-of-in-transition/+transition+culture+premiere&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie

Its the trailer for a new film 'In Transition' which shows how real communities are finding practical ways to deal with transitioning from fossil fuels to low carbon living. World premiere is May 23rd on-line.....check it out..

Fairtrade drinks take off at airport

Fairtrade Orange Juice has landed at Cork Airport. That's progress. Sadly you have to be a passenger in the duty free shop, but in time who knows. Yesterday Fairtrade Mark Ireland gave approval to the first product from the new Wish4Fairtrade company, so the launch date of July is looking good for both the confectionery and bakery ranges.

Tomorrow is World Fairtrade Day and Sister Delia has organised a FT breakfast in Bedfor Row, Limerick at 1030-1200. She is amongst the brightest stars in the irish Fairtrade universe.

Fairtrade Day for the World

Hopefully everyone is considering their plan to celebrate for World Fairtrade Day on May 9th. Bit confusing because this event involves more than just the 'food' (and cotton) part of the global Fairtrade movement, but any excuse to get us all to think about where our food and clothes come from is good by us.

Strange how we get up tight about the irish government printing national exam papers in the UK, but we don't mind that all the frozen food we buy has no country of origin at all on it !! Well, it might say 'EU' but then that includes raw material from asia, india, timbuctoo etc 'processed in the EU', so we don't think that should count.

Have a think....and as they say at google, 'do no evil'...

Fairtrade Instant Rip Off at Tesco

Yesterday in Tesco Dublin, I realised why consumers sometimes get confused about whether Fairtrade is expensive or not. On the same shelf was Nestle Partners Blend instant coffee 100g at €4.53, and FFI Fair Instant 100g at €2.77 of which 20p goes to Save the Children. These products are as identical as can be; showing that someone is making a profit at the expense of the growers.

UK CoO Fairtrade chocolate etc

The CoOperative in UK continues to lead in development of a Fairtrade range; yet to be seen in Ireland. If anyone knows a co-operative company in Ireland interested in distriubting their whole range....do let us know. Its a great opportunity. These brownies are also great value at £2 for 2 packs of 170g. The juice is £1.44/litre about €1.69

Tesco NEW Fairtrade Hot Chocolate

Nice to see Tesco launching an organic Fairtrade Hot Chocolate. At €4.49 for 400g is isn't cheap. Tesco regular Hot Choc is €2.79 for the same weight, and Tesco Valu Hot Choc is €1.39. Makes you wonder what they put in that exactly ?? Not a lot !!

Fairtrade Coffee bargain at Dunnes

Price is one of the 2 main reasons why people don't buy more (or any) Fairtrade products. So its interesting to see Dunnes Stores, whose adverts claim 'the difference is we're irish' bringing in a new UK Fairtrade coffee from Union Coffee Roasters. And its just €3.29 per 227g bag.

Compare that with Bewleys admittedly organic Fairtrade at €4.89 in Superquinn, or Cafedirect €4.68 and their Machu Pichu at €5.65 !

Certainly price of Fairtrade is coming down.

Fairtrade - who owns it ?

As Fairtrade Fortnight ends with thousands enjoying Fairtrade bananas, there is a debate worth paying attention to at www.tradingvisions.org/content/who-owns-fairtrade . Trading Visions is a charity set up to encouarge young people to get involved in the whole idea of Fairtrade and where it needs to go.

There are several on-line videos of the debate which took place in London School of Economics last month, all of which are worth watching. It made me think about just how much further there is to go, to make the trading world we live in anything like trully fair.

How fair is it when Cadburys say in 2008 that they will NOT be going Fairtrade, and then in 2009 change their minds without explanation ? Fairtrade is about a susatainable future for all, not a knee jerk reaction by a few greedy shareholders eyeing a profitable opportunity.

Well Done Dunnes

Well done to Dunnes Stores, who have re-introduced Fairtrade bananas to all their irish stores TODAY ! That also means extra business for Fyffes who supply them. So here's a bunch of their own Fairtrade flowers to celebrate !!

Dublin Fairtrade landmark

For Fairtrade Fortnight, the Bewleys coffee shop in Dublin's Grafton Street was suitably dressed for the occasion. Thousands joined in the banana eating record attempt, and it has now been confirmed that Cadbury's Dairy Milk will go Fairtrade this summer. So, as usual, where pioneers like http://www.divinechocolate.com/ have been boldly going for 10 years, those who should be leading the way end up following like sheep. Happily our god is well known for celebrating the return of one lost sheep out of a hundred to his fold. So we do !

Last chance banana

As Fairtrade Fortnight reaches its climax, a record breaking attempt takes place across europe tomorrow to see if we can eat more Fairtrade bananas than ever before in 24 hours starting at 12 noon. You can sign up at www.fairtrade.ie/gobananas whether its your school, company, family, rugby team etc. Take a photo and upload for the final count !! Definitely worth doing

Fairtrade Chocolate Fortnight & Easter

Fairtrade Fortnight brings out the best in all of us, and as the 3 growers from Africa tour Ireland (see www.fairtrade.ie for details), its left to the rest of us to make sure we buy the stuff. All that talk of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing comes to the fore, and we face the ultimate test...do we walk the talk ? ....do we really care about anything other than cheap food prices ?

Well, SuperValu have Divine chocolate bars (100g) at 33% OFF at €1.63 now, which is cheaper than their own SuperValu brand regular chocolate and MUCH cheaper than other 'respected' but 'unfairtrade' brands.

No excuse today folks...

Dunnes Stores Fairtrade Chocolate & Banana frenzy

Hooray for Dunnes Stores, Cornelscourt, Dublin. Yesterday saw the Divine chocolate bandwagon roll into Dunnes busiest store and wow the customers with a dreamy fairtrade chocolate fountain, and Fairtrade bananas to dip into it ! Dunnes haven't had Fairtrade bananas in recent weeks, but this looks like everything is back on track.

So, well done Dunnes; a trully Divine way to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight launch Dublin

Tuesday saw the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight by the minister for overseas development, Peter Power (NO, that's not him in the picture, that's the president from last year !!). Attended by Senator Feargal Quinn, and the likes of Tony Barry of the tea family, and 3 visiting growers from Africa, it was a worthwhile event, leading to some good publicity. Greta menu too, with Ben & Gerry's Fairtrade Ice Cream, and lashings of Fairtrade wine (well a glass anyway).

Fairtrade Fortnight starts

So here we go on Fairtrade Fortnight 2009. the easiest way to participate is to be part of the Fairtrade banana eating record attempt from noon Friday Mar 6 to noon Saturday 7th. Sign on at www.fairtrade.ie/gobananas and get your school, office, cafe, frisnde coffee morning involved.

Fairtrade shirts for church

Fairtrade Vodka has recently come on to the market, but we'd be hoping more people will convert first to Fairtrade communion wine. And while you're at it maybe treat your local priest, vicar, rector, pastor, bishop, preacher, prior, curate etc to a Fairtrade cotton clergy shirt from
www.fairtradeclergyshirts.co.uk .

In Ireland you can get the wine from www.lalor.ie

Fairtrade Bananas in Ireland

Fairtrade Bananas are available in Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and Superquinn stores in Ireland. Much more difficult to find in SuperValu, although in theory the manager can always order them. Spar stores can also get supplies, but the local managers simply choose not to. It really does mean you have to ASK !! Dunnes Stores do not currently stock Fairtrade bananas either. They used to, but somehting odd happened which we believe is NOT to do with poor sales. BOOOOO !!! If you think they should try sending an email to the buyer Brian Cox at bcox@dunnes-stores.ie

Fairtrade Sail ready for Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight starts 23rd Feb, and we're getting ready to hoist our FT sail on a hill overlooking Kinsale. We're also going to join the Go Bananas campaign on March 6 & 7. Growers look like they'll be visiting Youghal, Midleton & Cork in this area, so should be fun. Just hoping SuperValu will get plenty of those bananas in stock...

Fairtrade Ryanair, Unfairtrade Aer Lingus

While everyone is sitting around freezing in airports this week, remember Ryanair will serve you Fairtrade coffee and tea on board, while Aer Lingus won't ! An honourable reason for flying Ryanair. And although Aer Arann tea and coffee is likewise 'unfair', they do at least offer you a taste of Fairtrade luxury in the form of Divine Fairtrade chocolate bars.

Fair trade trouser deal

I was in Debenhams in Cork today. They have Fairtrade denim jeans, 'Buy 1 Get 1 Half Price' and then they give you an extra 30% OFF for opening a store card account which, of course, you never have to use. That less than €40 for 2 pairs of Fairtrade jeans.. Yiii...Haaaa !

I just got a phone call from the mayor of Bantry, to discuss how we are going to promote Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight here in the southern bit of Ireland. We're all keen on the banana eating record attempt scheduled for Mar 6th/7th, so that's a start. We'll talk to all our local schools and encourage the students to get posting mobile phone pics on the special website that will be set up to record events in various countries. Looking forward to it ! Hope you'll do something too; something tasty as well as of value to others.

Fairtrade Fortnight in Kinsale

The entire teaching staff of St Multose School were present at the planning meeting for Fairtrade Fortnight this week ! It was agreed that as a town we would 'go for it' with all the other towns in UK, Belgium and further afield to break the world record for banana eating from noon Friday Mar 6th to noon Sat Mar 7th. We hope the Good Food Circle restaurants will cook up some Fairtrade banana recipe to die for, and that the churches will serve up Fairtrade communion wine.

Lots to do, and all help gratefully received.

New Fairtrade brand for Ireland

'WISH4 fair trade' is a new venture dedicated to selling Fairtrade certified products, based in Ireland. The creators are keen to encourage irish suppliers to get involved in developing Fairtrade sales. Customers are looking for Fairtrade but it is often not available. The new venture will launch its first products in Spring this year.