Over the past week, Towera and I have spoken to approximately 1,200 people in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Stirling, Perth, and Fife during our Fairtrade Fortnight tour.

We’ve spent today in Oban, speaking to two primary schools and the high school and are setting off tomorrow for Skye, Ullapool, Inverness, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen and Dundee the rest of this week.

Last year, I was introducing people around Scotland to the Fair Trade Nation campaign. This year, with recent poll findings that 1 in 4 Scots now know about the campaign in mind, I have noticed a tangible growth in awareness of fair trade in general and of the Fair Trade Nation campaign in particular.

Over 2 million people in Scotland already know that Scotland is working to lead the way as a Fair Trade Nation, and, after this Fairtrade Fortnight, word will continue to spread. Over the past year, more towns have become Fairtrade Towns, more schools are working to become Fairtrade Schools, more local authorities have become Fairtrade Zones and Fife is even working to become the world’s first Fairtrade Kingdom.

We are well on our way to becoming a Fair Trade Nation and the next year will be exciting as we seek to intensify our work with universities, local authorities, towns and helping local groups to work as effectively as possible and network more with other groups throughout Scotland.

Thanks to all who’ve come along to events we’ve spoken at and to those who’ve worked so hard to plan and host events during Fairtrade Fortnight in Scotland. You are helping Scotland lead the world on fair trade activity.

Towera has certainly been impressed and she has been telling audiences everywhere we’ve gone:
‘…the power is in your hands to change the lives of people in places like Malawi through buying fair trade. You are leading the world by working to become a Fair Trade Nation. Join the campaign and change people’s lives.’

Among our list of criteria to achieve to become a Fair Trade Nation is a requirement that the number of Scots who recognise common Fairtrade branding needs to increase by 5% every year until we reach 75% and 40% of those people buy Fairtrade products regularly.

It seems like a tall order until you consider that research carried out in 2007 by the Scottish Executive International and Europe Social Research Team found the following:

• 68% of secondary school pupils surveyed had at least some idea of what the Fairtrade Mark means, with almost 38% saying they knew ‘quite a lot’ about what it represented.
• 64% of the general public surveyed having some idea of what the Fairtrade Mark means, with 24% saying they knew ‘quite a lot.’
• Of all those who responded, 53% they buy at least one Fairtrade product a year.

To put this another way, in February 2008 the Fairtrade Foundation released its annual figures and revealed that 75% of the UK public recognised the Fairtrade Mark. Their 2006 figures found that awareness of Fairtrade in Scotland was among the highest in the UK, at 61%.

Given that general awareness in Scotland rose 3% between 2006 and 2007, and that was before Scotland even had a Fair Trade Nation campaign, this means we are in a good place. The Scottish Fair Trade Forum is now leading the drive to raise awareness and understanding of Fair Trade in Scotland and we expect figures to go up. It was also before an official Fairtrade Schools award was launched by the Fairtrade Foundation in October 2007, and over 200 schools in Scotland are now registered as working toward the award; Fair Trade education in schools is preparing the next generation of adult consumers to think about the impact of how they shop.

Now is a time of huge opportunity to promote awareness and understanding of Fair Trade in Scotland, to be proud that Scotland will be one of the world’s first Fair Trade Nations and to work to change mindsets and habits to make sure that the impact we have on the people who make the goods we purchase is a positive one.

We’re well on our way!

Regards,
Betsy