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On October 23rd London, a city built on the fruits of two millennia of trade, was declared the world's largest Fairtrade city. Kurt Barling reports.

A decade ago in a small town in Lancashire Bruce Crowther woke up in the middle of the night with a bright idea.听 What if he could convince his local community in Garstang to buy ethically sourced goods which somehow guaranteed producers a fairer share of the end retail price?

From that inspiration, the idea of Fairtrade was nurtured.听听 In 2000 Garstang declared itself the World鈥檚 first 鈥淔airtrade town鈥�.听 It was a declaration of commitment to an idea, and a call to campaign to make that idea a reality.听听

Now the familiar products of coffee, tea and cocoa have been supplemented by nuts, sugar and many more including cotton to reach the retail floors of the Capital with the Fairtrade label.

Bruce remains a modest man, but one of huge passion and idealism.听听 It was no surprise to discover that his historical hero is Thomas Clarkson, the man who did more than any other to campaign against the slave trade in the late eighteenth century.

Bruce鈥檚 ambition has been to see that the terms of trade established in an Imperial world are redefined in a way that ensures greater added value can be retained in the communities which supply many of our acquired tastes.听听

This just about sums up the challenge of Fairtrade; it may not be everyone鈥檚 cup of tea, but it is pioneering.听 It reformulates the basic idea of conducting business between rich and poorer worlds.

Fairtrade products

Croydon in south London was the first London Borough to sign up to the Fairtrade 鈥渃harter鈥� in 2003.听听 As a local authority it promised to serve only Fairtrade produced coffee and tea in its offices and canteens.听听 Campaigners convinced a number of local employers to follow suit.

The local Fairtrade steering group encouraged shops to stock Fairtrade products and eventually set up its own retail outlet to ensure Fairtrade products were available to local shoppers.

But despite being around for five years in the local area the idea of Fairtrade still seems to be poorly understood.听听 Speaking at random to shoppers in Croydon people in general only had a sketchy grasp of what Fairtrade was about.听听

In essence shoppers in London and around the country pay a premium on the price of any given Fairtrade product, so that the producers of the original raw material can be guaranteed a higher price.

A few years ago I visited the Gumutindo coffee cooperative high up Mount Elgon in Uganda.听听 The farmers there reported that their price agreement, underwritten by a Fairtrade contract, had given them a steadier stream of income and made investment in more profitable farming practices realistic.听听听

It also had surplus resources which the community used for practical benefits like sinking new wells and furnishing school materials.

When Safia Minney started her fashion company People Tree she aimed to prove that high street fashion could by ethical and cutting edge fashionable at the same time.听听

By entering into a trading relationship which links cotton producers in countries like India with local garment manufacturers and first world fashion retailers, Minney has tried to establish a business model which she describes as 鈥減utting people before profit鈥�.听

Fairtrade coffee, tea and chocolate

It鈥檚 clearly tough to make it work, particularly maintaining the type of quality demanded on the British High Street, but pioneering ideas often are.听听 From their base in Old Street they believe their business model is robust enough to see them prosper through the credit crunch.

There are those who doubt the credentials of Fairtrade.听听 Marc Sidwell at the Adam Smith Institute has recently written a critique of the Fairtrade business model.听听 He maintains that by fixing a price above that which the market is prepared to pay; Fairtraders distort the market for coffee beans or any other product, developing world farmers have to sell.听

Fairtraders argue they are just smoothing out the peaks and troughs in volatile world markets so that developing world farmers in Fairtrade schemes can more readily predict their income.

Sidwell also identifies the low market penetration of Fairtrade products as a sign that this idea can only have a limited impact on global poverty.听听听

Fairtraders agree with Sidwell that a change to the international regimes governing trade could be a more effective way of ensuring a better deal for the world鈥檚 poor.听

In the meantime they argue that consumers can have a direct impact on developing world farming communities by thinking about their shopping habits.听

Fairtrade coffee in Newham

It鈥檚 an idea that has resonance amongst a younger generation.听听 At the Thomas Tallis School in Blackheath, like hundreds of other schools around the capital, students have formed a Fairtrade committee to persuade the school authorities and fellow students to buy Fairtrade goods.听听

But there is another side to Fairtrade in that these pupils are building a relationship with children in Ghana through video links which help them understand the context of helping poorer farming communities.

The declaration of London as the world鈥檚 largest Fairtrade city is only the beginning of a process by which campaigners hope to change the relationship between rich and poorer worlds.听听

Mayor Boris Johnson allowed campaigners to use City Hall to deliver the declaration.听 He is just the latest political convert to the idea dreamt up in Garstang a decade ago.

For Bruce Crowther it is not only the end product but the journey itself which is important.听听 Fairtrade he argues makes for a fairer world.听听 Of course making that a reality through Fairtrade will ultimately depend on consumers鈥� willingness to pay a premium for the product on the supermarket shelf.