Malmö celebrates five years as a Fairtrade City
In March, Malmö was recertified a Fairtrade City for the fifth time. Malmö was the first city in Sweden to receive this award in May 2006. That same year, Barista opened its first ethical café in Malmö – and today the company boasts six coffee shops in the city. Interest and involvement in fair trade increases every year, with Barista’s success in Malmö providing a shining example of this fact.
Malmö Fairtrade City is a partnership between the city, associations and enterprise to increase awareness of fair trade. Retaining Fairtrade City certification requires continually increasing involvement on the part of both the public sector and the private sector.
Much has happened over the past five years and consumption in Malmö City’s operations has almost doubled each year since the start.
Last year, Malmö City purchased certified ethical products for more than SEK 4 million. In 2010, 60 percent of all coffee, or about 6 million cups, consumed within Malmö City’s operations was fair trade. The figure for tea was 40 percent. What’s more, a full 19 tonnes of fair trade bananas were eaten!
Today, there are about seventy hotels, restaurants and cafés in Malmö that offer their guests at least one certified ethical product. Several of these companies work solely with fair trade and organic products. Barista Fair Trade Coffee is just one example of a successful business. In 2006, Barista opened its first coffee shop in Malmö. Today, they have six cafés in Malmö. Other pioneers include the restaurants Salt & Brygga and Brogatan, which have also won prizes for their organic business approaches.
Malmö Fairtrade City conducts a number of activities each year to increase awareness of fair trade. These activities can include anything from arranging banana drawing competitions to fashion shows and Christmas markets with a fair trade theme. At the Malmö Festival, to be held 19-26 August, Malmö Fairtrade City will take part, with its own festival area as a natural part of the arrangements. Later in the autumn, 19-20 November, Malmö will also be the proud host of the fifth International Fairtrade Towns Conference, which is expected to attract about 250 participants from 20 countries.
Fairtrade City was established in 2001, when Garstang in the UK was named the world’s first "Fair Trade Town". Since then, the concept has spread and in 2011 some 1,000 cities around the world are expected to be certified as Fairtrade Cities.
Becoming a Fairtrade City means that the public and private sectors assume joint responsibility for ensuring that as much consumption as possible is of fair trade certified products. It also involves local information efforts and campaigns to increase awareness of fair trade and ethical consumption.
The Fairtrade City concept is a simple way for a city to use trade to make a real difference for millions of people in the world!
Here you can read more about Malmö as a Fairtrade City
Here is an inspiring article about organic/fair trade in Malmö
Find Malmö’s fair trade locations on the Malmö Green Map
