The movement is now truly international, and the wildfire continues to burn. As 2008 comes to an end there are over 560 Fairtrade Towns across the world, including the cities of London, Rome, Brussels, Copenhagen and San Francisco. To see the complete list, visit wikipedia.

Join the campaign!

The third International Fairtrade Towns Conference will take place in Lyon, France, on February 6-7 2009. Southern partners who would like to consider starting a Fairtrade Towns Campaign for their own town are welcome to attend the conference. Contact Karlien Wouters of Max Havelaar Belgium at: info@fairtradegemeenten.be

You are also welcome to join the International Fairtrade Towns Google Discussion Group.

The local market price for cotton is currently only half the Fairtrade minimum price, and less than the cost of production. The opportunity to sell to the Fairtrade market therefore makes a huge difference to the farmers’ lives. For example in Complan, one of the cotton producing communities that the actress and TransFair members visited, the Fairtrade premium has enabled the farmers to install new school desks and a sink, and to build a new granary for their village.

The farmers of Complan have many other plans for the future. They want to build a canteen for pupils of the local school, a house for the teachers and an infirmary. But for this to become reality, consumers in Germany and all over the world need to continue supporting them by purchasing products made from Fairtrade certified cotton!

Finland, with a population of only 5.3 million people, has convincingly broken that record with a total of 52,061 people enjoying Fairtrade products. In a huge national effort, coffee breaks were organized by stores, restaurants, cafés, service stations, workplaces, schools, kindergartens, churches, NGOs, the Foreign Ministry, Parliament House and many volunteers. In all, some 6,400 litres of Fairtrade coffee were consumed at 1,096 coffee breaks around the country.

In November, Starbucks UK and the Fairtrade Foundation announced that by the end of 2009, 100% of the espresso coffee sold in Starbucks stores in the UK and Ireland will be Fairtrade certified in addition to Starbuck’s own Shared Planet™ certification.

This includes both whole bean packs and espresso-based beverages such as cappuccino and caffe latte, which form the vast majority of those sold in Starbucks outlets. To read the full statement, please click here.

This opportunity has been made possible by extending Fairtrade nuts and oilseeds standards to include olives and olive oil from Western Asia and North Africa. The standards were developed in close consultation with producer groups and exporters – for more details please visit www.fairtrade.net/smfarmers.html

Palestinian farmers’ organizations and the Palestinian Fair Trade Association have been working with Oxfam and fair trade organisations such as Zaytoun to achieve the social, environmental and economic criteria for certification. The first groups are expected to complete the certification process in the first half of 2009. To read more about this project, please click here.

The tram will travel around Melbourne until February 2009. The aim is to promote greater awareness of Fairtrade and the Fairtrade mark among the general public in one of Australia’s major cities.