22 June 2009

Nenagh is now officially a Fairtrade Town

Nenagh is now officially a Fairtrade Town following a conferring celebration at the Civic Offices last week. The event brought to fruition a campaign launched in 2007 by the Nenagh Fairtrade Group, which aims to raise awareness about Fairtrade and to ensure that a range of Fairtrade products are available in shops, supermarkets, restaurants and cafes in Nenagh.

A large crowd gathered at the Civic Offices last Wednesday night when Melanie Drea from Fairtrade Mark Ireland formally conferred Fairtrade Town status on Nenagh. She congratulated Nenagh on comfortably exceeding the requirements for the status, which involves nine cafes selling Fairtrade coffee and 12 retail units selling Fairtrade products in the town. Ms Drea spoke of the excellent work carried out by Nenagh Fairtrade Group with the support of Nenagh Town Council. She said local schools and media had also played a strong role in ensuring the town’s successful Fairtrade campaign. Town Mayor Virginia O’Dowd described the conferring as another great night for Nenagh and said she was delighted to have been a member of the Fairtrade group, which she added could not have achieved its success without the help of the town council, Nenagh’s shops, restaurants and other service providers. “I would like to thank you all for the effort you have put into reaching this point,” she said.

Robert Meade of the Fairtrade group said the event was an important milestone in raising the Fairtrade profile locally. Mr Meade explained that Fairtrade makes a huge difference in terms of guaranteed incomes and providing sustainable livelihoods, while conditions on Fairtrade farms are also significantly better. “All of us as customers have a choice we can make,” he said, adding that the Fairtrade group will continue to work with businesses to increase the stock of Fairtrade products in shops, and encourage cafes that are not currently Fairtrade to switch. Mr Meade also thanked all the businesses, schools, cafes and media who supported and continue to support the local group. Rose of Tralee Aoife Kelly was special guest and spoke of her recent experience with Voluntary Service Overseas in Kenya. There she visited flower farms, which supply much of the European market and saw at first hand the very poor conditions in which people work, especially regarding hours of work and health and safety as regards the use of sprays and pesticides. By contrast, people working on Fairtrade farms enjoy a new and much more progressive livelihood. “We all need to think what we can do ourselves to make a difference to the people in the developing world,” Ms Kelly said. For more information on Fairtrade in Nenagh visit the website