City festival to showcase fair trade

A CARIBBEAN banana farmer and a Central American campaigner will be in York to recount how the Fairtrade initiative has helped to improve the lives of poverty-stricken farmers around the globe.

By The Newsroom

Published 22nd Feb 2010, 10:38 BST

Updated 22nd Feb 2010, 10:38 BST

The two-week Festival of Fairtrade will begin from today to give York residents a chance to hear about the successes in aiding millions of people across the developing world.

Among the speakers will be Hugo Villela, who is from Costa Rica and works for Shared Interest which helps farmers across Central America get their goods on to the Fairtrade market.

Mr Villela will be talking at an event in the City Screen Basement Bar on Tuesday next week from 7.15pm.

Another speaker will be Nioka Abbott, a banana farmer from the Windward Islands in the Caribbean who has been involved in a campaign against the efforts of South American corporations to squeeze smaller suppliers out of international markets.

The talk will take place on Friday next week from 7.30pm at York St John University in room DG/017.

Full details of the festival can be found at www.fairtradeyork.com

York