Passionate about Fair Trade? Love drinking tea? Try Trumpers Tea! Trumpers tea is an organisation that is passionate about producing great tasting, high quality products at the same time as making a difference by trading fairly.

Claire Trumper founder of Trumpers Tea joined the SFTF at this year’s Royal Highland Show to promote a new Malawian Tea. Claire’s enthusiasm and knowledge of tea and Fair Trade was so interesting. After many, many years of working in the tea industry, Claire was able to answer any questions visitors had, at the same time as offering the opportunity to taste a variety of teas throughout the day.

If you’re attending the Royal Highland Show, pop by and show Claire your support or check out her web site at www.trumperstea.co.uk

This just in from our friends at People & Planet, Edinburgh University:

We’re co-hosting a ‘People’s Fairtrade Tea Party’ to celebrate the end of our petition to get Her Majesty the Queen to drink Fairtrade tea.

So come along to the party, which will be at 5 pm, Monday 22 June on one of the patches of grass by Scottish Parliament, across from Holyrood Palace!

‘On Monday we will be holding the ‘People’s FAIRTRADE Tea party’, outside the Queen’s palace at Holyrood, a week before she has her own tea party.

In case you hadn’t heard about the campaign to get Her Majesty to drink FAIRTRADE tea, have a look here…

It’s a chance to do some basic FAIRTRADE awareness-raising and eat nice cakes.

We have already seen some success… 

THIS MONDAY the 22nd June at 5pm we will be meeting OUTSIDE HOLYROOD PALACE on the huge piece of flat grass the other side from the Scottish Parliament.

We will be having a proper PHOTOSHOOT to send out with our press release, as well as handing out leaflets, getting people to sign the petition, and just sitting in the sun drinking tea.

If you want to come along, bring…

1. Fancy dress. Think mad hatters tea party. Bright colours and big hats. But come in anything you want! It’s our tea party, not the Queen’s, so we can wear whatever we want!

2. A mug to drink tea from.

3. Cake! Some will be provided, courtesy of People & Planet Edinburgh University, but the more the better!

4. Also, if you’d like a seat, bring a chair!

So, if you’re in Edinburgh please come along.’

Edinburgh University People & Planet

Hello!

Over the next few months I will be trying hard to increase the amount of people who are signed up to receive our monthly newsletter. The newsletter we send is important to involving everyone in Scotland, afterall this is a campaign for the whole Nation!

Are you interested in Fair Trade? Are you passionate about helping others? Are you a student seeking valuable work experience as a volunteer/intern? Do you want to get involved in making Scotland a Fair Trade Nation? Are you a Fair Trade organisation/supporter? Do you want to provide suggestions for forthcoming newsletters?

These are just a few reasons for signing up to our newsletter - come on, get onboard and sign up now! Visit our web site at www.sftf.org.uk and click on the link titled ’sign up to our newsletter’ on the right-hand side.

If you need any help signing up or want to give your suggestions, send me an email to: ross.stirling@sftf.org.uk with the subject line Newsletter.

Image Copyright Scottish Fair Trade Forum / Ross Stirling

On a recent visit to the Isle of Arran, it was inspiring to witness the amount of shops, cafes, restaurants and accommodation providers promoting Fair Trade products in their organisations.

The Isle of Arran become a Fair Trade Island in 2008 and currently has more than 80 Fair Trade promoters on the island!

Arran is easily accessible by ferry from Ardrossan and the crossing takes under an hour. Visitors can hop on one of many Caledonian MacBrayne’s ferry services operating to Arran (who are also Fair Trade supporters themselves!). One of the easiest and cheapest ways of visiting the island is by crossing as a foot passenger, where on arrival into Brodick, the island can be explored by cycle hire, bus tour or walking.

Watch out for upcoming Fair Trade events on the Isle of Arran which will be advertised on the SFTF web site. (more…)

The weather this weekend was a reminder that summer is almost here. July and August, in particular, are busy months in our office, as we use the ‘quiet’ of school holidays and Parliamentary recess to catch up and plan ahead.

So, watch this space for…

• updates on the SFTF stall at the Royal Highland Show June 25-28, where we will be chatting with visitors and VIP guests about the links between local Scottish farming and Fair Trade producers;
• pictures (we hope) and a bit of glossy update on both our tea party with People & Planet Edinburgh University to celebrate our petition to ask the Queen to drink Fairtrade tea and
• our trip to the Queen’s Garden Party at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh the end of June, representing the Scottish Fair Trade Forum to her Majesty.

We’ll be launching a national campaign in autumn 2009 that you can get involved in. It’s super-secret for now, but we’ll be letting you know what it is and how you can help, so watch this space!

Betsy