By HELEN COMPSON helen.compson@hexham-courant.co.uk

Published at 09:51, Friday, 13 March 2009

ZENEN Santana remembers the days – 30 years ago now – when poverty stricken honey producers in Chile had to catch bees in the forest to set up their hives.

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In contrast to the ‘friendly’ bees from Italy and Greece favoured by wholesale producers today, those Chilean bees had a real nasty streak to them.

The months and years that followed didn’t get any easier for the beekeepers either. They scraped a living that barely kept body and soul together.

Home was a wooden shack without electricity or running water, and an inside toilet was unheard of. It was all a far cry from the England of the 1980s.

However today those same producers, their friends, their neighbours and – most importantly of all – their sons and daughters, are reaping the rewards of a booming industry that poured $2million into the rural market town of Valdivia last year alone.

The reason? Fairtrade, and the legions of people around the world determined to see a fair day’s work rewarded with a fair price.

An independent consumer organisation, Fairtrade negotiates fair deals with Third World producers for the 2,000 or so products on its books.

By guaranteeing the producers a minimum, reasonable price for their goods, it offers them the security of knowing what they will get for their next crop.

A percentage of the money changing hands is also ploughed back into projects in their local communities, providing facilities for the common good.

During a series of presentations held at the Forum Cinema on Tuesday to celebrate Hexham’s elevation to Fairtrade Town status, Mr Santana said the impact on Valdivia couldn’t be overestimated.

A producer support co-ordinator working for Traidcraft out of its offices in Gateshead, he is responsible for managing the organisation’s relationship with producers in South America.

Wealth, health, education and infrastructure had all improved immeasurably in and around Valdivia.

And the imminent introduction of a second crop, blueberries, would ensure the town’s 350-strong workers’ co-operative no longer had all its eggs in one basket.

Now, young people had a reason to stay in the area, to follow their parents into an industry that offers a future.

The growing power of the Fairtrade movement and the beneficial effect it is having on some of the world’s poorest communities was highlighted during Fairtrade Fortnight.

An internationally recognised event, Hexham pulled out all the stops.

Organisations across the town, from Churches Together to Hexham Town Council, Queen Elizabeth High and the Sele First Schools, supermarkets, independent retailers and cafes – they all got involved.

Reinforcing the message that the Hexham Fairtrade Town group makes a point of supporting Tynedale’s own producers too, Riding Mill beekeeper Philip Latham gave a presentation.

The final weekend ended with a flourish. Staff and students at Queen Elizabeth High School held a themed ceilidh, and over 60 people attended a meal made using Fairtrade ingredients at Trinity Methodist Church.

During the afternoon in the Forum, Mayor of Hexham Coun. JB Jonas accepted a framed certificate from Mr Santana recognising the groundswell of support and positive action that had earned Hexham Fairtrade Town status.

“We all accept we’re not allowed to rest on our laurels now, though, because the Fairtrade status is reviewed at the end of the first year and then every two years after that,” he said.

The Rector of Hexham, Canon Graham Usher, said churches had been involved in the Fairtrade movement since its earliest days, when the only other people consuming the products wore sandals and beards, including the women.

But in the early 1980s parishioners seemed to be guinea pigs when it came to testing what were often new products on the market.

“I remember drinking Campaign coffee that tasted absolutely vile, but there was a feel-good factor in drinking it nonetheless,” he said.

“When I was in sixth form, someone came in with Fairtrade tea bags, which was useful because you could also smoke them.

“The down-side was that you had to go for a wee every 10 minutes.”

The guiding Christian philosophy was that you couldn’t be fully alive and enjoying life to the full if fellow human beings were living in want.

Combating the horrible memories of that first coffee had proved something of an uphill struggle, said cafe owner Debra Sisterson, but luckily the tea and coffee on offer today was of the finest quality.

Bananas were just one of the many Fairtrade products she used to produce cakes at the Upper Teas Cafe, above Nichols the bakers, on Cattle Market.

“I looked into the price difference between coffee and Fairtrade coffee, and I discovered that it was 8p more for a kilo of Fairtrade coffee,” she said.

“It’s only 35p more for a kilo of Fairtrade tea. Who’s going to notice that type of price difference? And if that is helping a producer in a developing country, I’m happy.”

Driving force behind the Hexham Fairtrade Town group, Penny Grennan, stressed the power of the consumer.

“Every time you go into a cafe, ask for a Fairtrade coffee. If they don’t have it, ask them why not,” she said.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk