Renwick Rose WINFA

To Irish Fairtrade Groups

Dear all,

First of all, permit me, on behalf of the entire membership of the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA), the Fairtrade farmers and people of the Eastern Caribbean islands, to express my gratitude for your warmth and hospitality extended during my visit. Wherever I have had the privilege of visiting there has been a spontaneous outpouring of friendship and solidarity in keeping with the principles of the Fairtrade movement and the traditions of the Irish people.

Your support for Fairtrade is a most admirable way of giving tangible meaning to a full exchange between consumers and producers. It guarantees producers not only from my own region but also from other continents to have access to a market where a conscious consumers choice ensures that they get a full return for their labour. It encourages them to produce more environmentally friendly conditions thereby contributing to global preservation and enhancement of the environment.

Because of Fairtrade and the support of Fairtrade towns, groups, and consumers more than 3300 of our banana farmers have been rescued from loss of market and income and this have been able to secure their livelihoods and the future of their children. In the Windward Islands of Dominica , St. Lucian, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines , this is particularly manifested, it benefits to female farmers who make up about 30 percent of Fairtrade farmers.

In addition, Fairtrade, by providing a social premium on every box of bananas sold, has been able to provide support for very admirable social project in rural communities. A school bus in Dominica, a learning resource centre with computers for infants in St. Lucia, a pension and health plan for farmers in St. Vincent, for the first time in their lives, one but a few of the outstanding community projects which Fairtrade has supported.

Above all, Fairtrade is contributing to the practical expression of new trading relationships between consumers and producers based on social justice. It is helping Irish consumers to become more aware of their social and environmental responsibility as citizens of the world and to engage producers in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and Asia on a more equitable basis.

I wish to congratulate you on your achievement so far and to encourage you to keep the Fairtrade flame burning. May it be extended to those towns and committees not yet involved in the Fairtrade spirit. We all can contribute to spreading the vision of a New World based on equality and social justice, a world of FAIRTRADE.

Renwick Rose

WINFA