AT the start of 2014 the newly formed Melrose and District Fairtrade Group had modest plans to achieve a couple of key goals during the year. First and foremost to raise awareness generally about the fairtrade movement and increase local knowledge of the benefits of fairtrade and how local people could make a difference to the lives of farmers and producers in some developing countries. Secondly, to establish a baseline of local knowledge in the community about fairtrade products and assess the use and availability of fairtrade products in local businesses, retailers and community organisations.

In March, during national Fairtrade Fortnight, the group held its formal launch, performed by Councillor Iain Gillespie from Scottish Borders Council. The event was staged at the Trinity Centre in Melrose as an integral part of their regular coffee morning and sale of fairly traded goods. All three local churches are now signed up with the Fairtrade Foundation to using fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar for their congregation and visitors.

During Fairtrade Fortnight, Melrose Primary School also 'went bananas’ by selling fairly traded fruit and showing how bananas could be used in baking and other exciting dishes. It also sowed the seeds of thinking about developing a fairtrade tuck-shop in school.

The group has worked extensively with the local primary school over the year. This has included giving a presentation about fairtrade to the whole of P7 coupled with a slide show picturing the visits some group members have made to see first hand how fairtrade has already benefited farmers and producers in developing countries. Where possible when the group has held its meetings it has included both staff and pupils from school. Support from the Headteacher and school staff has been superb and our interest in promoting fairtrade locally fitted well with an existing school Eco-hour project.

The group was keen to understand better local knowledge and attitude to the idea of fairtrade and fairtrade products. In April Melrose Primary School offered to run a local survey of parents and carers by organising the distribution of an on-line survey. In collaboration a simple questionnaire was devised with a small group from Primary 7, the questionnaire distributed and again with pupil involvement, the data and results were tabulated.

In many ways the results were surprising. Some 260 local households were invited to participate and with a response rate of almost 30 per cent, excellent for an on-line survey, the results were encouraging for the Fairtrade Group. Over 40 per cent indicated that they bought fairtrade goods every week with an additional 13 per cent purchasing fairtrade products at least once per month. Only a very small number of participants currently see Melrose as their primary shopping location with the majority using Galashiels. However, almost half of those responding said they would be more inclined to shop in Melrose if more retailers stocked fairtrade products. Later in the year we took this message out to local shops and businesses in the town centre as described below. Interestingly almost two thirds of people responding felt that obtaining Fairtrade Town status for Melrose would enhance the town and make it more attractive to visitors.

In mid year the group felt it was important that it formalised its structure and accordingly, with help from The Bridge in Galashiels, drafted and approved its first constitution as the Melrose and District Fairtrade Group and established an interim committee of officers to steer the next phase of its work. It was also then able to open a bank account and soon after secured its first small cash grant from the Scottish Fair Trade Forum to support its formative work.

Having established a baseline in relation to local knowledge regarding fairtrade the next step was to undertake a survey of local businesses, retailers and groups to discover what fairtrade products were on display and sale in Melrose shops; additionally to record which local businesses and groups used fairtrade products, say for staff refreshments, and those catering and hospitality establishments that regularly bought and provided visitors with fairtrade products. This was carried out in August and September.

Over 30 local businesses were approached directly covering appropriate retail shops, B & B businesses, cafes, hotels/restaurants and sundry other businesses in the town. The results were surprising and very encouraging in terms of the interest and commitment to fairtrade from many of those approached. Our two supermarkets between them stock over 30 different fairtrade items and the Country Kitchen Deli offers seven fairtrade items. Most of the local town centre B&Bs use fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar for their guests as do two of the major local hotels. Andrea Gardner at The George and Abbotsford Hotel has visited some developing countries and is keen to support the use of fairtrade products locally.

Our survey revealed that some less obvious local organisations were also keen to support fairtrade where they could. Dawn Jack at Melrose Rugby Club said: “I am committed to purchasing fairtrade products when I can and use the local Co-op where possible.” At Merlin’s Music Academy in Palma Place, where there’s also a small coffee shop that sells fairtrade coffee, biscuits and ice cream, Bridget Grey said: “We should have a conscience about fairtrade and think about where we buy our supplies. That is why we purchase, use and serve fairtrade products.” This piece of work also helped us to understand that many businesses and organisations are tied into specific suppliers and therefore do not necessarily have a free hand in selecting what they stock or use. Melrose Rugby Club tied to specific sponsors for example, hotels that are part of a national chain and central procurement arrangements or in some instances just unaware that many national wholesalers in fact do offer quite a wide range of fairtrade products. We identified eight wholesalers that supply local shops, cafes, hotels and B&Bs all of whom advertise a wide range of fairtrade products.

The start of the new school year at Melrose Primary School saw the idea of a fairtrade tuck shop come to fruition. A driving force behind the initiative is Fr Philip Blackledge Rector at Holy Trinity Church. The idea came from the P6 and P7s, who were very keen to promote fairtrade. Fr Blackledge tells us “It operates once a month, with the children involved with selling, stock taking, re-ordering, and choosing what new items to stock. It is hoped that the children’s considerable enthusiasm will spill over to the parents.” The enthusiasm of the young people at school in supporting fairtrade seems to know no bounds and this has been a real asset to the group in enabling strong awareness raising of the initiative to secure fairtrade town status for Melrose.

But in some quarters there has also been demonstrable support from adults. The group was invited to make a presentation about its work as part the recent AGM of the Darnick Village Trust in September. The attendees were treated to a PowerPoint slide show based on some group members’ visits to developing countries to show how fairtrade works on the ground and how the fairtrade premium is used to support local infrastructure development for wider community good. The provision of some tasty tray bake cakes made with fairtrade products also went down very well. The group is keen to spread their awareness raising into other surrounding villages. If any community group in Gattonside, Newstead or Bowden would like us to bring our slide show to your meeting please contact the group secretary, Dave Potts on 01896 823002 to make arrangements. We will of course also bring a selection of fairtrade goods for you to sample at the same time.

We have also been active in networking and collaborating with other similar local organisations. This has resulted for example in the group being invited to make a presentation as part of the Greener Borders Winter Talks series sponsored by Greener Melrose Transition Town Group. This will take place in the Ormiston Rooms in Melrose at 8pm on Wednesday, February 25.

Jenni Young, chair of the Melrose group looking forward to 2015 said: “I now hope all this preliminary work will come to fruition by achieving Fair Trade Town status for Melrose and district.”