Fairer World Update 22.02.24

New Fairer World price lists

New Fairer World price lists are now available to download for Food Products, Cleaning and Household Products and Short-date Foods & Old Stock Cleaning Products, each dated for 22.02.24. There is low stock on most items on the Short-date Foods & Old Stock Cleaning Products list. (See our orders and deliveries page for how to order.)

Fairer World sales increasing

Charlie has recently finished our Quarterly VAT accounts for the period 1.10.23 to 31.12.23 and can see that sales are increasing both at the Fairer World shop and also on church stalls. Thank you very much to everyone. 

Easter eggs and seasonal chocolate – all in stock

Easter chocolate at Fairer World

Fairer World has Divine milk chocolate speckled mini eggs and dark chocolate mini eggs available. There are no Divine milk chocolate mini eggs this year, so we have obtained some from Tony’s and Cocoa Loco.

Fairer World has Divine dark chocolate + raspberry flat eggs and milk chocolate + salted caramel flat eggs, plus a few dark choc + raspberry hollow boxed eggs.

Our Meaningful Chocolate Company eggs are almost the same as previous years: milk choc boxed Real Easter eggs and dark choc boxed Real Easter eggs plus Real Easter Egg milk choc hen’s egg size eggs in a Fun Pack. All of these have an Easter story book / leaflet supplied with them. Special Edition milk choc boxed eggs have now sold out. 

We also have some Cocoa Loco hand made organic (and expensive) chocolate mini eggs in three varieties and other seasonal chocolate. 

And, new to us, Tony’s milk chocolate boxed large eggs, milk choc mini eggs and mini choc egg assortment.

More details on the food price list!

Palestinian products

Some of our Palestinian products currently on sale

Palestinian products are selling particularly well as customers respond in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Fairer World has most sizes of olive oil in stock, plus four varieties of loose olive oil soap (i.e. not wrapped), with wrapped olive oil soaps on order, and stocks of Medjoul dates. Zaytoun has recently emailed us to tell us about the difficulties being faced at present, saying the violence and restrictions are affecting every aspect of daily life in the West Bank as well as agriculture and trade. Full text of this email is at the Fairer World shop.  Maftoul remains out-of-stock both at Fairer World and at Zaytoun’s warehouse.

(See also our dedicated Palestinian products page.)

20th Anniversary of York as a Fairtrade City

Next month, March 2024, will see the 20th anniversary of York being declared a Fairtrade City, an important landmark, steered by York Fair Trade Forum https://fairtradeyork.org.uk/. Details of how the Fairer World shop will mark the occasion will be in the next Fairer World update.  

28th Anniversary of Fairer World opening at 84 Gillygate

1st February 2024 was the 28th anniversary of Fairer World opening the shop at 84 Gillygate. (We had previously had a short-let shop in Jubbergate and, before that, one in Goodramgate, the latter being operated as York Traidcraft).

30th Anniversary of Fairtrade Fortnight and date of the Fortnight moved

This year Fairtrade Fortnight is celebrating its 30th anniversary and has moved the date of the Fortnight to September – Mon 9 to Sun 22 Sept 2024. This move to September is due to be on a permanent basis. This year’s theme has not yet been announced. More details at www.fairtrade.org.uk.

Stock update

Fairer World has been able to start ordering from Essential Trading once again as our recovery from Covid-caused disruption continues. Essential Trading is a wholefood co-operative like Suma, and supports fair trade like Suma does. It stocks many of the same lines as Suma, but some different ones, too. As a result we have the return of Essential Trading own brand organic dark chocolate spread and organic chocolate hazelnut spread, Tropical Wholefoods organic chewy banana chips, Clipper decaf organic instant coffee 500g size and Zapatista organic ground coffee and beans from South Mexico. 

On the cleaning and household products front, we have now obtained most 5 litre size containers of the Bio-D and Ecover lines which we stock, so customers can do their own refills at home, if they wish. Any 5 litre containers we don’t happen to have in stock at any time, we would be pleased to order quickly (and we make deliveries, so customers do not need to carry the heavy containers home themselves). D2w black refuse sacks are once more available in a more economical 20 roll size.

We understand that Ma’s coconut milk and Just Trading Scotland lentils have been discontinued by True Origin, who are the importers of these products into the UK.

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Still time to stock up on socks!

Socks for Christmas stocking fillers are a bit of a cliche, but you’ll forget that when browsing our new range of designs from Thought. Whether cute, Christmassy or colourful, or sometimes all three, no one could be disappointed to receive a pair as a thoughtful personal gift (see what we did there?).

Or perhaps you’re not buying presents this year, or have already made your purchases for others. Why not treat yourself to a special pair of socks for Christmas Day? You know you’ll enjoy wearing them, and what’s more you’re contributing to trade justice and the protection of the environment at the same time. What’s not to like? Choose your favourite design here.

And yes there’s still time! The Fairer World shop is open till 4pm on Christmas Eve (Sunday). Full details of shop opening times, and how to continue to get your essential Fair Trade goodies while the Fairer World shop is closed between Christmas and New Year are here.

Thank you. And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our customers and supporters – we really appreciate you.

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Fairer World Update 18.12.23

The Fairer World shop is open to customers to come in and browse. Our published hours are 11.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Saturday, but we are usually open both before and after the published times. 

Socks arrived

A large consignment of Thought bamboo mix socks has at last arrived at Fairer World, having been ordered and paid for at the end of October. So we now have lots of varieties of size 4-7 and size 7-11 socks, including Christmas trees, Santas and snow people.The delay had been caused by the company Thought going into administration and ultimately being taken over. 

Photos of some of the new socks will be posted on the socks page shortly.

Palestinian products

Fairer World has a good stock of olive oil and Medjoul dates, plus raw almonds, freekeh and za’atar, to complement a range of Palestinian crafts (olive wood, pottery, mother of pearl and embroidery) and cook books. Maftoul remains out-of-stock at Fairer World and at Zaytoun’s warehouse. 

Fairer World also has a good stock of Zaytoun’s olive oil soap collection – a boxed pack of 4 olive oil soaps (pure, lemon, rose and sage), hand made by a family business in Nablus.

Christmas foods

(Pricey and) Christmassy Coco Loco Organic and Fairtrade champagne truffles, Christmas pudding truffles and sloe gin truffles, dark choc ginger, mango and raspberry stars, milk choc Santas and milk/white choc penguins, and milk and dark choc buttons are all in stock at Fairer World, plus the full range of Divine chocolate and a range of Seed & Bean chocolate bars. 

Full range of Fairer World coffee, tea and preserves available.

Clothing back in the shop

We have restored some clothing to Fairer World, with both winter and summer garments, including a range of Fairtrade and Organic T-Shirts. 

January Fairer World update

We will be bringing out another Fairer World update in January, along with new price lists for Cleaning & Household Products and Short-dated Foods & Old Stock Cleaning Products. The update will also have details of the Fairer World New Year Sale, due to include some Christmas cards, wrap, calendars, crafts and seasonal foods.

Christmas and New Year opening and closing hours

Fairer World will be open every day up to and including Christmas Eve, closing at 4.00pm on Christmas Eve. Fairer World will remain closed between Christmas and New Year, re-opening at 11.00am on Tuesday 2nd January. 

Orders

We welcome orders for delivery over the Christmas period, however, both immediately before Christmas and also between Christmas and New Year. Please order by email to 84gillygate@gmail.com or to the Fairer World mobile 07877 947793. We will then put the order together, contact the customer and make the necessary arrangements for delivery. 

Moira and Charlie

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Fairer World Update 23.11.23

The Fairer World shop is now open to customers to browse the contents of the shelves and make their purchases inside the shop, rather than being served at the shop entrance. 

The core shop hours remain at 11.00 to 5.00, Monday to Saturday, but the shop is usually open either side of those times and on Sunday afternoons, too. Card payments remain the most frequent method of payment, but cash is welcome, as are bank transfers and cheques. 

Some photographs of the stock on sale can be seen on the previous post, courtesy of Christine. Big thank you to her, as ever. Please do browse the rest of the website while you are here!

Short stock update

Fairer World has this year’s Christmas cards from Amnesty International and Transform Trade (which used to be called Traidcraft Exchange) as well as previous years’ Traidcraft Christmas cards. 

Our main wrapping paper this year “Mountains Giftwrap”, which is from Nepal and made out lokta, a rapidly regenerating shrub, so it is both fair trade and sustainable. Supplied to us by one of the oldest fair trade companies: One Village.

Milk chocolate Advent calendars are very low stock at Fairer World. Meaningful Chocolate were unable to manufacture as many Real Advent calendars as they planned and were unable to fulfil our most recent order to them. All of our suppliers of Divine milk choc Advent calendars do not have any in stock in their warehouses, so we are unable to replenish our dwindling stocks. Dark choc Advent calendars are in better supply. 

Fairer World has found a new supplier for Divine chocolate and now has the full range of Divine available, both seasonal chocolate – including milk and dark chocolate coins, dark choc mint and ginger thins, 12 mini bar tasting sets and Joyful flavoured milk chocolate 180g bar – plus all the 90g and 35g bars, hot chocolate varieties and cocoa.

We have a range of (expensive) Cocoa Loco Organic and Fairtrade chocolate truffles and “cathedral” packs of flavoured chocolate, plus Seed and Bean Organic Fairtrade choc bars.

Fairer World has the full available range of Zaytoun Palestinian food products, including Caramelised, Roasted Chilli and Smoked almonds, but Medjoul dates 500g size and Maftoul are out-of-stock at Zaytoun’s warehouse. Zaytoun tells us they are very busy. We will re-order these products soon. Our Palestinian crafts at present are from previous years – including glass baubles from Bethlehem, kufiyas and some pottery from Hebron plus a range of olive wood products.

At the moment our main new crafts are Lanka Kade painted wooden toys, jigsaws and Noahs Ark from Sri Lanka and Just Trade Mexican jewellery.

Having found a source of cash for ordering, at last, we will be ordering from some of our other craft suppliers in the next few days.

Thought clothing company – the source of the best-selling bamboo socks – has been taken over, so we don’t quite know what the future will hold, but we have managed to place a big order before this happened, so Fairer World will have some stock in the short-term. A second big order of socks from Fairer World has been caught up in the change of company and has been consequently delayed.

Price lists

A new food price list is available here and on the Price Lists page. A new cleaning and household products price list and a new short-dated foods and old stock cleaning products price list will be issued shortly; until then, please use the existing lists here.

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Come in and browse!

The Fairer World team are delighted to announce that the shop at 84 Gillygate has now reopened! Just in time for the festive season, our shelves are packed with beautiful Christmas cards, gifts and crafts as well as our usual varied offering of high quality fair trade and sustainable food, drink and household products.

Ready to serve you!

Catherine, Moira and Charlie (pictured) along with Mary and Chris are looking forward to welcoming you in person. Come on down! We’ll be thrilled to see you.

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Fairer World update 5.8.23

The Fairer World shop is  open 11.00am to 5.00pm, 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday. Customers are not admitted inside the Fairer World shop, however, but are being served by staff from the front entrance. We will be reviewing this situation in mid-Autumn. 

Payment is usually by card (or by bank transfer, or by cheque), please, although some customers have occasionally paid with cash.

We are increasing the number and range of crafts available for personal shoppers and for stalls. As well as new Mexican and Guatemalan crafts sent to us by our friend John at Just Trade, we have been recycling a lot of cardboard recently, with the positive side-effect of uncovering some old crafts and cleaning materials in our storage unit. We are having a cleaning sale as a result, because these cleaning products are at least 3 years old, and may not necessarily work as effectively as brand new ones. So they will be offered at reduced prices. Details are to be found on our latest Short-dated Foods and Cleaning Products Price List, dated 3.8.23. We have only a small stock of many of the short-dated food products on this list but there is more depth of stock for most of the reduced price cleaning products.

We have recently had a mailing from Transform Trade (formerly Traidcraft Exchange), transform-trade.org, with some exciting future plans to restore something of the positive force which was Traidcraft and a request for financial support to help bring these plans to fruition. Transform Trade has taken ownership of the Traidcraft brand (last April) but is being understandably cautious as far as the future is concerned because these plans need money to bring them to fruition. Our own financial resources are still very limited, as people are aware, but we would suggest fair trade supporters have a look at Transform Trade’s request for financial support / get in touch with Transform Trade to find out more about their plans. We will try to keep our readers up-to-date with developments.

As far as Fairer World is concerned, we have a decision to make as to whether we sign a new lease for the premises at 84 Gillygate with our landlord, City of York Council. The cost of the rent is difficult for us to sustain (£13,300 pa under the next lease), whilst our sales income remains so low. We have a number of trading debts to pay and loans from supporters to repay. We (Moira and Charlie) are in the process of trying to claim pensions due to us and to obtain probate of Moira’s mother’s estate to help in providing the cash for the debt and loan repayments and to widen the range of stock available. All of this is a slow process. We do want to continue trading, however, as we believe that this is the approach to take as it is one which offers the most benefit to fair trade producers.

In addition, we have a bill to pay for internal work at 84 Gillygate caused by damp during the lockdown. Now that repairs have been completed, Moira Bridge has returned to spend more time in the shop – previously we thought the mould spores would be inappropriate for someone with an asthmatic condition. We have been surprised and disappointed to be asked to pay for all the internal work and half of the external work, because of the provisions in our lease, however. We would welcome any comments on this situation and any suggestions for alternative sites for the Fairer World shop. 

Stock update

All the following products are back in stock at Fairer World:

  • Clipper Organic Papua New Guinea instant coffee
  • Clipper Organic Freeze Dried Decaffeinated instant coffee 
  • Suma Organic Ethiopia Yirgacheffe ground coffee
  • Equal Exchange Organic Mexican Clear and Set Honey 
  • Wainwright’s Organic Zambian Clear and Set Honey
  • Just Trading Scotland Brown and White Kilombero rice from Malawi is now in stock in 3 Kg sizes and also in the new 500g sizes. The 500g size packets are branded True Origin, which is Just Trading Scotland’s new name
  • Liberation Salted Peanuts & Cashews 
  • Tropical Wholefoods Just 5 Organic Date & Walnut bars
  • Liberation Peanut Butter with salt
  • Suma Organic Peanut Butter crunchy with salt
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Fairer World Update 6.7.23

The Fairer World shop is open 11.00am to 5.00pm, 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday. Customers are not admitted inside the Fairer World shop, however, but are being served by staff from the front entrance. Payment is usually by card (or by bank transfer, or by cheque), please, although some customers have occasionally paid with the correct amount of cash.

News about our suppliers

Traidcraft, which was previously our biggest supplier, went into administration at the end of January this year. The impact of Traidcraft’s closure on our stock position is still being felt, although we have been working hard to provide substitute products where possible.

Some former Traidcraft products have been purchased by a new company https://www.wearefairtrade.com/ and mixed with non-fair trade products on its website. The best before dates on the products, the limited range of products concerned, the small discounts for bulk purchases and our present lack of cash has meant that we considered that buying from this new company was not suitable for Fairer World, for the moment at least. 

Fairer World has found new suppliers for Cafedirect coffee and Divine chocolate, however, enabling us to have more products in stock. New sources of fair trade tea have been hard for us to find, with the result that Clipper tea products dominate the tea shelves. Sources of fair trade biscuits and muesli are proving to be the biggest challenges for us – we haven’t found any so far but are still searching. Much of the fair trade dried fruit products which Traidcraft used to include in its range remains stubbornly out-of-stock at other wholesalers. We keep watching and waiting for them to re-appear. 

Updated price lists now available!

Fairer World has brought out new price lists for Food Products, Cleaning and Household Products and Short-dated Food Products, each dated 5.7.23. We have pared our Foods products price list to better reflect what is available given our present cash shortage. We are trying to increase the range of our stock but some products on the new price list are not yet in stock. Towards the end of the summer we expect to have more money available to buy stock and will try to widen the range of products we have on the shop shelves. The price lists do include a number of price rises especially for coffee and tea products, unfortunately. Some cleaning products have increased in price, too.  

Some new products

Cafedirect Mayan Gold Freeze Dried Instant coffee 100g – a strength 5 instant coffee. 

Suma Organic Medium Ground coffee 1Kg size – to replace Traidcraft ground coffee 1Kg.

Clipper Earl Grey Organic teabags, 80 bag box – to replace Traidcraft Earl Grey.

Cafedirect Everyday teabags 440 bags size and Clipper One Cup teabags 440 teabags size – to replace Traidcraft catering teabags.

Clipper Organic English Breakfast loose tea 80g. An existing product which has been revamped, reduced in weight and the price increased.

Various nut products on the new price list but not available yet at our suppliers. 

Equal Exchange Organic Raw Cane Sugar 500g and Suma Golden Granulated Sugar 500g – to replace the Traidcraft range from Mauritius. 

Fairtrade certified sugar sticks in 1,000 stick sizes, both brown and white, but at different prices to replace Traidcraft catering sugar sticks. The new sugar sticks are 2g in weight on average compared to Traidcraft’s which were 3g in weight. 

More supplies of Mexican earrings are on their way to us to complement the large range we have already. 

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Foxes for sockses!

Wearing Fair Trade has never been so fun!

One of our favourite suppliers Thought has come up with yet more delightful sock designs, and the Fairer World shop now has them in stock. Head over to our Socks page to see the new designs – including subtle love hearts, sneaky foxes on a blue background and hard-pedalling cyclists.

Pop along to our shop on Gillygate to choose your favourite design, or add a couple of pairs to your next email/phone order. Your custom is always very welcome and appreciated, both by ourselves and by the producers and suppliers we support.

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Easter update from Fairer World

Easter opening times

The Fairer World shop is normally open 11.00am to 5.00pm, 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday.

We have special opening hours for the Easter weekend, however, as follows:-

  • Maundy Thursday 6th April OPEN as usual
  • Good Friday 7th April CLOSED
  • Saturday 8th April OPEN as usual
  • Easter Day Sunday 9th April CLOSED
  • Easter Monday 10th April CLOSED
  • Tuesday 11th April, and thereafter, OPEN as usual

Customers are not still admitted inside the Fairer World shop, but are being served by staff from the front entrance. Payment is still by card only (or by bank transfer, or by cheque), please. No cash in use. 

Thank you for shopping with us!

Thank you once again to all our customers, to those who do over the counter shopping / collecting orders from Fairer World and thank you to those who send in orders to us for delivery to them. Please do continue to support us in this way and / or with loans to help us buy stock in this unusual situation brought about by the closure of our main supplier, Traidcraft, two months ago. We now have to order from a number of suppliers to obtain goods which we previously purchased in one delivery from Traidcraft. And because of the need to meet a number of order value thresholds in order to obtain free carriage for the goods which are being ordered from multiple suppliers, it requires a bigger outlay to do so.

Stock news

We are making some headway in managing to stock the shop shelves with coffee, tea and chocolate, fortunately, but we have more to do in each of these product areas. There are a number of out-of-stocks in each of our suppliers’ warehouses, unfortunately, which is slowing down the work of replenishing the Fairer World shelves.

Catering products

We are pleased that we are also managing to restore the catering products stock situation at Fairer World, with new products to replace products which we previously bought from Traidcraft, as follows:-

Suma Fairtrade certified organic ground coffee 1 Kg size, priced at £21.99, is now in stock at Fairer World, available for customers to order straightaway. This product will be on the next Fairer World price list.

Cafedirect freeze dried instant coffee 500g size and Clipper organic freeze dried coffee 500g size are both still out-of-stock at our supplier’s warehouses, but, we are told, that they are expected to arrive in the warehouses imminently.

Cafedirect Everyday teabags 440 teabags size, Fairtrade certified, 1Kg in weight, priced at £14.49, is now in stock at Fairer World and available for customers to order straightaway. This product will be on the next Fairer World price list.

Clipper Everyday teabags, 440 teabags, 1Kg in weight, priced at £11.80 (this price may increase soon), is currently out-of-stock at Fairer World but is available for customers to order straightaway. We are re-ordering for delivery to be made to Fairer World soon after Easter. This product will be on the next Fairer World price list.

Catering size sugar sachets remain out-of-stock at our supplier’s warehouse. We are keeping a good look out for them coming back into stock.

Other products

We are still trying to source fair trade biscuits, muesli and sugar. Traidcraft supplied us with all of these products and its closure has left a big hole in these product areas.

We have recently had a visit from our friend John Doughty from Just Trade, who we have been buying from since 1985. John packs his stock into his old estate car and drives round the fair trade shops in the UK three or four times a year to sell his goods. As a result of his visit to us, our stock of earrings, bangles and nodding animals etc made by marginalised Mayan people in Mexico has increased substantially.

Immediately after Easter we will be re-ordering from Just Trading Scotland who import into the UK, and supply us with, the following products: Malawi kilombero rice in the 3Kg size (it is not available in smaller sizes at the moment), pulses from India, Eswatini jams, marmalades and chutneys from Swaziland, Meru Herbs jams and sauces from Kenya and Ma’s coconut milk from Sri Lanka. All these products should be available from Fairer World by the middle of April.

Latest price lists

Our current Fairer World price lists for foods, short-dated food items, household and cleaning products and Easter Eggs can all be found on our price lists page.

New price lists will be brought out in a few weeks’ time and posted here; they will also be sent out to our email list with a further Fairer World update, so please email us if you’d like to be added to our mailing list.

Moira and Charlie Bridge

Fairer World

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Fair Trade Easter Eggs now in stock!

Stock up with special Easter gifts for family and friends, church events, Easter egg hunts or simply a treat for yourself from our delicious and ethical range of fair trade chocolate Easter eggs, now in stock at Fairer World (list accurate at 18.3.23).

Downloadable order form is here or explore our full range of food and household products on our order form page.

Boxed Easter Eggs

The Real Easter Egg Milk Chocolate* 150g £4.80
The Real Easter Egg Dark Chocolate* 150g £5.50

Dark chocolate and milk chocolate boxed egg

Mini Easter Eggs (solid choc eggs, foil wrapped)

Divine 70% Dark Choc Foiled Mini Easter Eggs 152g £5.00
Divine Milk Choc Foiled Mini Easter Eggs 152g £5.00

Milk or dark chocolate mini eggs

Midi Easter Eggs (hollow 20g milk choc egg, hen’s egg size, foil wrapped)

The Real Easter Egg Milk Choc Fun Pack 6 x 20g* 120g £5.00 (good for Easter egg hunts)

6 chocolate eggs – in an egg box! £5

Easter Chocolate Bars

Easter Blessings Milk Chocolate Bar 80g £3.00

Easter blessings bar £3

Items marked with an asterisk * contain an Easter story book or guide

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