Dublin City Council and Fairtrade Mark Ireland are working to make Dublin Europe’s first Fairtrade capital city with a launch at the Mansion house on the 25th September.
A steering group for the city has met with the city’s area committees and they are close to setting up a website www.dublin.ie/fairtrade.
The steering group chaired by Councillor Eric Byrne have met with the Community and Development department of Dublin City Council and obtained a commitment by the department to run community events during Fairtrade Fortnight in 2007. They will be connecting with both primary and secondary schools on initiatives and Fairtrade promotions.
John FitzGerald, the City Manager has approved a proposal to engage a consultant to conduct research for a Faitrade Audit of Dublin and reporting to the council in mid-October 2006 for a charge of €8,000.
Sales of fairtrade products are growing at 40% a year and in September a leading Irish coffee company, Insomnia announced that all coffees served in its 25 outlets would be 100% Fairtrade.
Almost a year ago, Insomnia commissioned an R&D programme to reproduce the same Insomnia coffee taste from Fairtrade producers, mainly in Ethiopia. Speaking at Insomnia’s IFSC outlet, Insomnia CEO Bobby Kerr said “We believe that this is a win-win for all stakeholders. This deal benefits coffee producers and we hope it will leave a sweet taste in the mouths of our customers, staff and management. Sourcing Fairtrade coffee is part of our commitment to ethical trading and is an important part of our corporate philosophy.” At the gathering the Minister for Overseas Co-operation, Conor Lenihan said, “this deal amounts to 2.5 million cups of coffee a year and is a good example of how Fairtrade is becoming increasingly more mainstream.”
Fairtrade coffee now accounts for 4% of the market and its share of tea, banana, chocolate markets and other products is growing.
‘NewsFour’ is currently investigating the possibility of joining the Fairtrade campaign by having only Fairtrade tea and coffee in the office.