This network started due to the commitment of one woman, a Devon County Councillor, who wanted Devon to be a Fairtrade County. We set up a meeting and invited representatives of all the Fairtrade towns in Devon – there were about 10. We met face to face and decided on joint activities – the best was to invite a Fairtrade producer to come to Devon for Fairtrade Fortnight. The county gave us an annual grant of £2000, which covered all our costs. We also offered to organise Fairtrade pupil conferences, to groups of schools, so that pupils could meet a Fairtrade producer,

Martin Odoch, a Fairtrade tea grower from Uganda, came first in 2008, then almost every year we were able to invite one or two visitors, men and women, from all over the world – Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Mali, Kenya.

Sadly, financial pressures on the county meant they ended their grant, although we continue to have some paid officer time and a DCC Councillor appointed to our network. Our last visitors were coffee growers from Rwanda in 2023. It is now, extremely difficult to obtain a visa, but we have been fortunate to have Patrick Kaberia Muthaura, from Kenya, guest of Calne &Wiltshire, to attend our 30^th anniversary conference in 2024, and on 10^th October Yesenia Lumbi, a Fairtrade coffee grower from Nicaragua and guest of Bristol, will join us for a day’s conference.

Through our meetings, we aim to network people, encourage each other, share good ideas and challenges, share news from the Foundation and take queries to them also. So, we are delighted to encourage people to set up Fairtrade town groups, although some towns sadly dropped out, as people moved away or became committed to other issues.

When the Covid pandemic came, we moved online. This means we can invite Fairtrade activists from across the South West – usually about 16 representatives from Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol as well as Devon, join us. We meet about every 6 weeks on a Friday morning, 9.30am till 11am. Everyone is welcome to join us.

We always try to have a speaker. Brian Nimwesiga joined us from Fairtrade Africa in Kampala, Ugandan – that was very special.  Also Anneli Ortqvist, from Fairtrade Sweden, whom we met at the International Fairtrade Towns Conference in Edinburgh 2025.

We are also pleased that Elena Fernandez-Lee, often joins us sharing schools and university updates and news from the Fairtrade Foundation’s campaigns team. Both Exeter and Plymouth Universities join us – they have both gained the top 3 star Fairtrade award.

Meeting online has great advantages, although it’s good to meet face to face, too!