It has been a busy, busy few weeks since I last wrote.

First of all, our first ever Scottish Fairtrade Campaign Day in Dundee on 29 November was attended by over 90 activists from around Scotland. Highlights included workshops on ‘The Future of Fairtrade’ by Veronica Pasteur of the Fairtrade Foundation, feedback from Scottish Fair Trade activists on what they want to do locally and how the Forum can help them (given in my workshop), and a closing address by Andy Good of Equal Exchange.

On 5 December, Scottish Government Minister for EU, External Affairs and Culture, Linda Fabiani MSP, announced the Scottish Government was giving us a funding boost to help us better spread the word about Scotland’s Fair Trade Nation campaign and raise awareness and understanding of Fair Trade in general. To see the full press release, click here. We look forward to the capacity this now gives us to produce promotional materials and reach a broader audience over the next few months.

Aileen Campbell MSP last week introduced a motion in Scottish Parliament (S3M-3040) supporting our joint statement with the National Farmers Union Scotland. The Wales Fair Trade Forum has subsequently followed our lead to work with its own local farmers union to issue a statement agreeing to work together to recognise that farmers everywhere deserve a ’fair deal.’

And, last but not least, today the award letters and cheques for our Small Grant Scheme go out in the post. We received over 20 applications and are giving away over £10,000 in this first round to groups from Arran to Linlithgow to Inverness to boost the Fair Trade projects they would like to carry out. Our second round of grant applications will be open until January 14; applications and guidelines can be found here.