York achieved Fairtrade City status on 3 March 2004.

See the Fairtrade in York website for listings and maps of shops, cafes, businesses and community groups around York which use two or more products which bear the Fairtrade Mark.

The Fairtrade Towns initiative was set up by the Fairtrade Foundation (see below) as a way for local communities to demonstrate their commitment to Fairtrade in a high profile way.

The world's first Fairtrade Town, Garstang in Lancashire, was declared in 1999, and the number of Fairtrade Towns and Cities has grown steadily since. To become a Fairtrade City, City of York Council was required to agree to several actions, these being:

• To pass a resolution supporting Fairtrade, and serve Fairtrade coffee and tea at its meetings and in offices and canteens.
• A range of Fairtrade products must be readily available in the area's shops and served in local cafés and catering establishments (targets are set in relation to population).
• Fairtrade products must be used by a number of local work places (estate agents, hairdressers etc) and community organisations (churches, schools etc).
• The council must attract popular support for the campaign.
• A local Fairtrade steering group must be convened to ensure continued commitment to Fairtrade Town status.

What is Fairtrade?

International trade may seem a remote issue, but when commodity prices fall dramatically it has a catastrophic impact on the lives of millions of small scale producers, forcing many into crippling debt and countless others to lose their land and their homes.

Too many farmers in the developing world have to contend with fluctuating prices that may not even cover what it costs to produce their crop.

Development agencies recognised the important role that consumers could play to improve the situation for producers. By buying direct from farmers at better prices, helping to strengthen their organisations and marketing their produce directly through their own one world shops and catalogues, the charities offered consumers the opportunity to buy products which were bought on the basis of a fair trade. For more information see the Fairtrade website.

The council is not responsible for the content or reliability of external websites.

York Fair Trade Forum

Fair Trade Forum is a voluntary organisation working to make York a Fairtrade city so that more people locally are aware of, and support fairtrade which guarantees farmers in the developing work a fair price for their products.

See the York Fair Trade Forum website for information, publications and leaflets.