Clonakilty is Ireland's first Fairtrade town, inspired by a grandmother's campaign. Iva Pocock reports on the difference it makes
As you wander along the gently curving main street of Clonakilty, or Clon as it's known locally in Co Cork, with its pastel shades and narrow pavements, it's difficult not to notice how many restaurants and cafés there are along it. If you stop and take a closer look at the window displays you also realise that "Fairtrade products here/Fairtrade le fáil anseo" stickers are everywhere, from supermarkets to hotels and the Internet café.
If you want to shop with a conscience this is Ireland's first Fairtrade town. Last September, the national organisation that promotes Fairtrade goods, Fairtrade Mark Ireland, awarded Clonakilty the title, after the coastal town achieved the five necessary goals.
The town council passed a resolution supporting Fairtrade; Fairtrade goods became widely available in shops and cafés; a flagship business, the Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre, agreed to serve Fairtrade tea and coffee exclusively; media coverage was organised and a local Fairtrade steering committee was convened.
Jennifer Sleeman, a 74-year-old grandmother, chairs the committee, which formed spontaneously after a coffee morning she organised with Fr Gerard Galvin, and the Rev Ian Jonas in the autumn of 2002. She credits her commitment to Fairtrade to a visit she made to a friend on a Mission in Peru five years ago ("that was the first time I saw real poverty") and also to the counsellor training she did after rearing her family, because it made her "brave" enough to speak in public.
Since she first spoke about Fairtrade, the town has been on a steep learning curve. "It's been a great education," says Fr Galvin, who has promoted the merits of buying Fairtrade Mark goods from the pulpit, as well as in local schools.
Over the last two weeks, during the annual Fairtrade fortnight, 17-year-old Sacred Heart students Moira Walsh and Susan Cullinane, have boosted sales of Fairtrade tea and coffee by calling around to restaurants and cafes which hadn't yet agreed to stock the brands. And the older pupils at St Joseph's National school showed off their culinary skills by baking banana bread, chocolate cake, tea brack, coffee cake and swiss roll using Fairtrade products. With some 400 cakes for just 230 pupils there was plenty to go around.
"I can't say that we were really aware of Fairtrade before last year," says school principal, Kathleen Ryan. Her colleague Geraldine Crowley reckons that the availability of so many Fairtrade goods in local shops is what has "made it for the children" who each had to go shopping for their cakes' ingredients.
Some of them went to SuperValu. "We're doing mainly tea and coffee, fruit and veg, but we're trying to increase our range as it's limited enough at the moment," says manager Adrian White. "I'd be surprised at how many are coming in looking for it. We're definitely going to keep stocking them."
Jerry Lehane, owner of Lehane's Mace Supersave on Pearse Street is "absolutely" committed to selling the Fairtrade goods. "They're selling very well," he says. "If the people are benefiting to the extent we are told they are, we'll certainly support it."
One man who has benefited directly from Fairtrade is Guatemalan farmer Felipe Miza Castro, who is in Clonakilty to mark the town's designation. With just half a hectare of land, he is typical of the campesinos who strive to make a living in the face of massively decreased global coffee prices following a huge oversupply of low grade coffee from Vietnam.
"The only way we can survive in Guatemala is if we produce quality organic coffee," says Castro. "This is nothing new, as our ancestors have been doing it for generations." The central volcanic mountainous region where he comes from, San Lucas Tolímán, has very good soils for growing Borbom and Arabica, both high grade coffees, he says.
One quintale (100 lbs) of such unprocessed coffee beans is worth $7 to the farmer on the regular market, and Felipe produces between 55-60 quintales each year - an annual income from his coffee of just $420. But because he is a member of a small community organisation, Ijat'z, (which means seed in his ethnic language, Cakchikel) which in turn is part of a 1,300-member organisation Manos Campensinas, Felipe gets more than twice the standard market price for his coffee - $18 per quintale.
It's made a huge difference to him since he started selling Fairtrade three years ago, he says, especially as he and his fellow growers are now guaranteed a fixed price for their crops. In addition, some of the premium income is being invested in land and machinery, so that they can start part-processing the coffee.
The farmers in his local group (58 men and 28 women) are also diversifying into other crops thanks to the security and increased income from their Fairtrade coffee.
"We are now teaching people to grow avocados, oranges, lemons, bananas and peaches," says Felipe. He now has 10 avocado trees. "The coffee beans under the avocados are nice and big because they like the shade," he says, while the local variety of bananas fertilises the soil, produces lots of compost and helps prevent wind erosion.
"Now we are working to keep our seeds because if we loose them we are always going to be slaves," he says.
With no bank account, car or telephone, it's a miracle he's in the Republic, given the strictures of international travel - the US refused him a two-hour transit visa on these grounds, so he flew via Mexico - but standing in a reception room in Clonakilty's Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre, he looks remarkably at home, as he hands over a Fairtrade certificate of thanks to the town's Lord Mayor, Cllr Seamus O'Brien.
Hotel manager David Henry says he feels somewhat guilty about the amount of publicity they've got from it, "but at the end of the day I knew it's good for the town and that would be good for business. There's also the moral aspect, that it means so much on the receiving end." He says any customer who has asked what Fairtrade is "is very impressed with what we are doing".
James Deasy and Brid O'Donovan, who work as gym instructor and life-guard in O'Donovan's Hotel, have both been buying Fairtrade coffee in the hotel on the mainstreet. Sitting just across the road in Café na Coillte, which also serves Fairtrade tea and coffee, they say they're sure most local people have heard about Clon being the first Fairtrade town. "I know from hearing the kids who come swimming talking about having to write about 'what is Fairtrade' for homework," says Deasy.
Back in O'Donovan's hotel, owner Tom O'Donovan appears in the foyer grasping a bottle of undoubtedly the most exotic beer in Co Cork - Mongozo Fairtrade banana beer. "We sell this in our off-licence," he says with a grin. He reckons Fairtrade should extend its range. Pointing at his jeans which cost just €10: "They are surely made in some sweatshop."
Local woman Eileen Cullinane, shopping in SuperValu, has heard about the status and thinks it's "fantastic. My husband is a farmer so we have the same issue with milk." However, retired dairy farmer James Lane, who is also shopping, reckons: "If they want Fairtrade they should start at home. There's a farmer leaving the land every 24-hours because of the low prices being paid for milk."
Nevertheless, the town's Fairtrade committee has been contacted by people from all over the country. Founder member, Sinn Féin town councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin says proudly: "We frequently get e-mails from other towns. Basically, where we've led, others want to follow."