Making Wales the World's First Fairtrade Nation

10 years ago TCC called together a very broad base of organisations; including Wrexham Football Club, Glyndwr University, the Co-op, and the Farmers Union. The Co-op were integral to our success due to their dedication to Fairtrade, but the heroes we recognised and brought together were the men and women who had been selling Fairtrade from the backs of their churches individually for years, and of course our own very committed TCC membership. Together we had a vision for Fairtrade at home and overseas. We developed a pattern to make Wrexham the first Fairtrade county in Wales. Not without difficulty: the English Fairtrade Foundation at the time was very precious and did not want to recognise our initiative. However we were, of course, successful and within one more year we replicated county status in Flintshire and Denbighshire, with all 3 counties supporting and working together. This pattern was then used across Wales and formed the basis from which Wales became the first Fairtrade country in the world 5 years later. TCC is very proud of this achievement, whilst recognising it did not do this alone with others elsewhere achieving different aspects of the campaign. Nonetheless, it was TCC who forged the way. It was hard work, great fun and a matter of integrity that continues and is as important today.