Raising the profile of fair trade

It’s all about sharing

Delivering the vision in Central America

finance for fair tradewww.shared-interest.comQuarterly Return 53 Autumn 2004

Banana growers’co-operative in Costa Rica.

Photograph by Ruth Junkin.

QR

people to peopletours success

Brian Condor of Traidcraft took this photograph

during the first People to People tour of Kenya, a

joint venture between Traidcraft and Crafts of

Africa (as reported in QR49).

In July and August this year 14 people from the

UK took part in the 15-day tour, visiting a

number of fair trade producers as well as the

more conventional tourist attractions. The

feedback was extremely positive: all participants

said they would recommend People to People

Tours and all wanted to go on another.

The photograph was taken at Bombolulu, north of

Mombasa, one of Kenya's biggest centres for the

rehabilitation of disabled workers. Bombolulu has

four sheltered workshops and over 160 employees who

produce beautiful jewellery, using soapstone, brass,

copper, semi-precious stones and even recycled drinks cans.

Employees receive free housing or an allowance towards

accommodation, fair wages, good working conditions, medical

cover and help with school fees for the children.

The workers are also involved in decision making with the management.

The aim of the project is to help the workers develop as independent

members of the community, having self respect and security. The man in the

picture, called John, is carving a wooden nativity set (featured in Traidcraft's catalogue).

www.peopletopeopletourism.com

www.skedaddle.co.uk/p2p.asp

page 2

more outlets for zambian honeyThe organic forest honey gathered from tree hives in Zambia by the fair trade co-operative

North Western Bee Products (featured in QR51) is now available in Holland and Barrett stores

thanks to the increased marketing efforts of sole UK importer Tropical Forest Products Ltd.

“Our aim is to greatly increase the number of sales outlets for this honey,” said David

Wainwright of Tropical Forest Products. “Last year production doubled and, partly as a result

of Shared Interest’s loan, it looks set to double again this year.”

www.tropicalforest.com

fairtrade and organic - doublefirst for fashion in selfridgesThe fair trade and organic cotton collection from People Tree is now available in all four Selfridges

stores. This is a double first for the famous fashion store - first fair trade, first organic.

People Tree is the trading name of the Fair Trade Company, based in Japan and the UK, which has

been using Shared Interest’s credit facilities for 10 years.

The garments in the People Tree cotton collection are made by Assisi Garments, a fair trade project

in Tamil Nadu, India, that employs 150 young women many of whom have speech or hearing

impairments.

People Tree works with 70 fair trade groups in 20 developing countries giving design and technical

assistance to help marginalised producers overcome the barriers of selling their products. People

Tree also funds village welfare projects such as schools and hospitals and supports the

continuation of traditional skills and the use of local materials, thus helping to keep threatened

rural communities and cultures alive.

www.peopletree.co.uk

fair

tra

de n

ews

QR53

Two fair trade buyersand two producerorganisations have beenapproved to join SharedInterest’s financialClearing House sincethe last issue of QR.

Fairwind TradingCompany – UK

Fairwind Trading has a shop inNorth London, selling a variety offair trade products, the mostimportant being furniture fromJava and Bali. Other productsinclude textiles, carvings andsculptures from producers inAfrica and the Philippines. Thecompany hopes to be able to startpurchasing from other producersin India, Nepal and Central andLatin America in the near future.

www.fairwindtrading.com

TopQualiTea – UK

TQT produces a range of fairlytraded and organic teas fromIndia and Sri Lanka. Teas arepackaged by the producers andstored and distributed by the UKbased company. The fair tradepremiums paid over the yearshave enabled the plantationworkers and their families tobuild schools and health centres toimprove standards of living intheir communities.

www.topqualitea.com

COADAP – Guatemala

COADAP produces honey fromthe Peten region, a large area ofjungle in Guatemala with difficultaccess. COADAP sells all itshoney to Gepa, a long standingClearing House member based inGermany. Following a period ofadverse climactic effects and

environmentalissues, whichled to a decline inquantity and qualityof honey, an incentivescheme was introduced toencourage the farmers to meetquality standards. Recognisingthe importance of ensuring buyerquality standards were met,COADAP now pays fortechnicians from the Ministry ofAgriculture to meet the farmers toimprove production methods.

Aprainores – El Salvador

Aprainores is an association ofcashew nut farmers who havetransformed abandonedplantations in eastern El Salvadorand set up a new processing plantwhich has the quality control andtraceability levels needed fororganic certification.

See article on page 5 for moreinformation.

http://perso.wanadoo.es/gbajolempa/aprainores.htm

NEW FACES AT SHARED INTERESTThere are three new faces at Shared Interest’s head office in Newcastle upon Tyne since the last issue of QR.

Amy McIntosh is the new Team Leader of the Customer Service Team which is responsible for transaction processing and

operations, credit management, sales and customer relationships. Previously Amy was a Team Leader at Newcastle Building

Society dealing mainly with incoming and outgoing customer transactions. Amy speaks Spanish and French.

John Grady is Shared Interest’s new IT Project Manager. John spent the last three and a half years in Ethiopia working as an

IT consultant for the Oromia Regional Education Authority through VSO. Before that he worked in Switzerland on the Eurex

derivatives market as a software developer and options trader.

Simon Donnelly joins Shared Interest as Management Accountant. Previously he worked in Guernsey as an accountant, for

Specsavers and for several offshore banks. He recently returned to a small organic farm in the Wear valley with his wife and

three children. Prior to working as an accountant he was a civil engineer.

Following a recent recruitment drive, Ben Lilley will be joining Shared Interest in November as Sales Manager. Until recently

Ben worked for Diageo, based in West Africa.

new to the clearing house

page 3 QR53

LONDON FAIRTRADE FAYREShared Interest will have

a stall at a pre-Christmas

fair trade event in Central

London. Use the

opportunity to do some

Christmas shopping and

buy some fair trade gifts

on Friday 3rd and

Saturday 4th December

from 11am to 5pm at The

Emmanuel Centre,

Mersham Street (behind

Westminster Abbey).

Nearest tube -

Westminster. Admission

£3 (concessions £1).

Aprainores cashew nut processingplant. Photograph by Sara Velasquez

Fairwind Trading Company’s London shop

page 4

delivering the Banana plantation in CostaRica. The blue bags protectthe crop from pests.Photograph by Ruth Junkin.

In recent months Shared Interesthas used two people with directexperience of the needs ofproducers in Central Americancountries to find out exactly whatfinancial services would be themost helpful.

The two approaches were quitedifferent. In Costa Rica Shared Interestengaged a consultant specialising in ruralfinance to produce detailed reports onselected fair trade producers who mightbenefit from Shared Interest’s services. InEl Salvador a Traidcraft market accessadviser was asked to make contact with aproducer organisation which had appliedto join the Shared Interest ClearingHouse. “In both cases we were askingappropriate people with local knowledgeto be the face of Shared Interest,” said SueMayo, Shared Interest’s BusinessDevelopment Manager.

COSTA RICA

Shared Interest has engaged RuthJunkin of the Center for the Competitivityof Eco-Enterprises to visit and researchthe financial needs of four producerorganisations, all certified by FLO, theFairtrade Labelling Organisation.

At present Ruth has produced tworeports: one on a co-operative of bananaworkers, the other on a largerco-operative of sugar and coffee farmersand other members.

The banana co-operative has 65members and 35 employees. All themembers work on land owned by theco-operative. The co-operative is arelatively small-scale producer in CostaRica where four large companies accountfor 85% of banana exports. Almost half of

its produce goes to fair trade buyers.Because of the regularity of harvestingbananas there is little problem with cashflow. The main financial requirements arefor renovation of old plantations andimproving irrigation.

The sugar and coffee co-operative hasgrown over 40 years into a majoreconomic force in the southern zone ofCosta Rica with over 8,500 members andsome 500 workers permanently employedin the sugar refinery, coffee mill andsupermarkets. Although the co-op’ssugar is FLO registered less that 2% of itsproduce is exported via fair trademechanisms.

Ruth Junkin’s main conclusion is thatneither of these organisations wouldbenefit from using Shared Interest’s creditfacilities in the exact way that they areoffered at the moment. Both have accessto credit in the local currency at a lowerrate of interest than Shared Interest wouldcharge for providing credit in dollars.

Sue Mayo is not disappointed by thisconclusion: “Compared with many of the

“We are not

in the

business of

undercutting

the local

market.”

food producersin central america

A worker pictured outside theAprainores cashew nutprocessing plant. Photographby Sara Velasquez.

QR53

countries we work in, Costa Rica is quitedeveloped. We are not in the business ofundercutting the local market.”

The reports also makerecommendations about the type offinancial services Shared Interest couldprovide that would help these wellestablished food producer organisations.For example, they would be interested inlarger long-term loans which they couldaccess without using the Shared InterestClearing House for export credit. Theseand other proposals will need to beconsidered over the coming months.

EL SALVADOR

Shared Interest asked Sara Velasquez, amarket access adviser for Traidcraft, tovisit Aprianores, a farmers’ association inEl Salvador that has been supplyingcashew nuts to fair trade buyers for thelast eight years. This visit was to be thefinal step in approving the latest producermember of the Clearing House. SharedInterest staff first met representativesfrom Aprainores at Biofach (organic foodfair) in February.

Sara Velasquez lived for a number of yearsin El Salvador and has a good understandingof local conditions. She writes: ...

Aprainores supports 130 farmers andtheir families on the island plantation ofMonte Cristo. It also buys raw materialfrom an increasing number of smallholders in the wider region as well asfrom another cashew nut co-operative inthe east of the country. It also employs 80workers in the processing plant.

The President of the Association, FredyLopez, said “The Association was formedtwo years ago to take ownership of theprocessing unit and machinery and tomove the business forward.” The planthad been built and operated by the ElSalvadorian NGO CORDES. However,CORDES was keen that the ownership bepassed to the producers.

Most of the raw material for the plantcomes from a small island plantation inthe delta of the Lempa River, ElSalvador's major river. During the civilwar (1979-1992), the original estateowners abandoned the whole area, andduring the land reforms that were part ofthe peace accords much of this area wasdistributed among ex-combatants, bothsoldiers and guerrillas.

As the land had been abandoned foralmost 10 years, the new owners of theplantation saw the opportunity to certifyit as organic, in order to increase the

value of their product.The new plant has been

running since 1998. Thelayout has been designed

to ensure high levelsof quality.

“Theformation of

the

producers’ association has allowed us toaccess credit that was not possible before”said Fredy Lopez. “The problem is thatthe rates of interest are very high - 16% to24% - and the repayment periods are veryshort.”

I had the opportunity to see some of thework in progress. Two large deep fatfryers were the first step in the process.The outer shell of the cashew nut isextremely tough, and also contains a toxicoil that is corrosive to the skin. Frying athigh temperatures softens the shell.

The next stage is to break these outershells. There are around 18 peopleworking on this, armed with small heavystones, protective gloves and overalls.They sit at high benches in the main bodyof the plant where the temperaturereaches 30 degrees C. Everyone sweatsprofusely.

Underneath the shell of the nut there isa tough skin that must also be removed.Baking the shelled nuts in theoven helps this process.What follows is still themost delicate part ofthe whole process, asAna, one of theworkersexplained: “Fromhere on, theprocessing of thecashew nutstakes place in thesterile part of thefactory. I have touse this sharp knifeto carefully take thehard outer skin off.The most importantthing is to try and break asfew nuts as possible, as wholenuts are worth much more thanpieces.”

Vicente Carranza is the manager ofAprainores. “This credit facility fromShared Interest has come just in time as itallows us to leverage a little moreworking capital from our fair tradeclients. We have so many plans for the

plant and for the farmers, and access tocredit is one of our major limitations.”

page 5

vision

“This credit

facility from

Shared

Interest has

come just in

time.”

David Parker reports on the first examples ofShared Interest’s new ways of working withpartners in developing countries - the Deliveringthe Vision project announced in QR52. Additionalreporting by Sara Velasquez.

QR53

page 6QR53

IFAT AsiaIn September 2004, SharedInterest Managing DirectorStephanie Sturrock joined fairtraders from all over Asia, andsome guests from Europe, USAand Australia, for theInternational Fair TradeAssociation regional conferencein Hanoi, Vietnam.

The conference reflected the diversity ofAsia itself - a huge variety of cultures,languages and social and economic powers.There were over 80 delegates - from Sri Lanka,India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines,Thailand, Nepal and China - representingmany types of fair trade organisations, mainlyexporting handicraft products.

Professor Shyam Sharma from TARAprojects in India opened the conference byexpressing hope that professionalism in fairtrade gives us more opportunities. “Movinginto the mainstream in foods has allowed us tocombine quality and concept. Let us do this innon-foods [handicrafts] too,” he said. “Justand fair is not a compromise on quality andexcellence.”

IFAT has started to regionalise its activities.New bodies are emerging in Africa and LatinAmerica, with others expected soon. Countrybodies are also emerging in India, Philippines

and Indonesia. But it is the Asia Fair TradeForum that is developing fastest and hasalready started to deliver businessdevelopment and market access programmesto its members through the Asia Fair TradeCentre of Excellence. These includea model of technical assistanceand training, product designand development andsupport for attendance atmainstream trade fairs,like the BIG fair inBangkok (see QR50).

IFAT is starting thisregionalisation at thesame time as SharedInterest is beginning tointernationalise itsbusiness through theDelivering the Vision

project. Both processeswill progress step-by-step,and there are opportunitiesfor further developing thepartnership between IFAT andShared Interest as the regions startto put in place their own secretariats.

FAIR TRADE BRAND

Professor Ranjan Mitter of the IndiaInstitute of Management, Calcutta, called onfair traders to recognise that the starting pointfor marketing must be the consumer not theproduct. The consumer is now global andcompetition means that FTOs must

differentiate their product in the market place,and be prepared to invest heavily to supportand market their brand. Food and handicraftsmust go together to send out a powerfulbranding message.

Most readers will be familiar with theFairtrade label that appears on various

food products in the UK. This label,managed by FLO - the Fairtrade

Labelling OrganisationInternational - is used widely inmany northern markets onfood. But most IFAT southernorganisations producehandicrafts. In IFAT, there isan ongoing debate on howproducers and products arerepresented in northernmarkets (branding) and how

their fair trade claims arecertified/verified (labelling).

IFAT has developed a system ofself assessment, with peer review

and external verification, whichallows members to use the ‘IFAT FTO

mark’ on literature and materials (but noton products). Asia members of IFAT are keenfor this mark to be developed into a strongbrand, which IFAT members can use forlabelling on products.

The final strategy for the IFAT FTO markwill be decided at the IFAT biennial meeting inQuito, Ecuador, in June 2005 when all the IFATregions have given their views on how themark should be used.

THOUSANDS OF TRADE CAMPAIGNERS PRESS LABOUR More than 6,000 campaigners protested outside the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in

September, putting pressure on Tony Blair to change the government’s unfair trade policies.

Campaigners from all over the UK joined guests from Bolivia, Ghana, South Africa and India in a

carnival atmosphere. Their message was that the government must act now to change its policies

on trade - policies that are keeping millions of people in developing countries trapped in poverty.

The event marks the start of a new campaign, Vote for Trade Justice, which will run throughout

2005 and aims to collect one million votes. More than 60,000 people have so far voted.

Chancellor Gordon Brown used a fringe meeting organised by the Trade Justice Movement to

announce the UK would pay off 10% of the money owed by 32 of the world’s poorest countries

to the World Bank and the African Development Bank. This move will amount to £100m a year

until 2015, and Gordon Brown was clearly intending to put pressure on the USA, Germany, Japan

and other rich countries to take similar action.

The Trade Justice Movement is a coalition of aid agencies, environment and human rights

campaigns, fair trade organisations, trade unions and faith groups that represents nine million

people. Shared Interest is a member.

AWARDS FOR FAIR TRADE INNOVATORSThree members of IFAT, the International Fair Trade Association, have been selected as

‘outstanding social entrepreneurs’ by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Meera Bhattarai (Association for Craft Producers, Nepal), Farouk Jiwa (Honey Care Africa, Kenya)

and Safia Minney (People Tree, Japan/UK) were three of the 13 award-winning

individuals/organisations out of 100 candidates.

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is an international non-profit organisation

based in Geneva, Switzerland. It aims to identify and provide recognition for outstanding social

entrepreneurs around the world whose work has significantly improved people’s lives.

rais

ing

the

pro

file

of

fair

tra

de

Safia Minney (People Tree, Japan/UK)

Photograph byMarcella Haddadcourtesy ofCAFOD

IFATis a global

network of over220 fair trade

organisations in 59countries. Most are

producer organisations inAfrica, Asia and Latin

America. Distributors of fairtrade goods in Europe, North

America and the PacificRim are also members.

Shared Interest is amember as are most

organisations itworks with.

QR53page 7

by Colin Crawford,Shared Interest’sOperations Director,who retired on 30September 2004

We have all heard the sayings thatevery journey, no matter how long,begins with a single step and that it isbetter to travel than to arrive ...

Eight years ago when I joined SharedInterest I took my first step on a fair tradejourney and I am still travelling.Many of my companionsalong the way havededicated their lives tohelping others. InAfrica, LatinAmerica and Asiathey have beensouthernproducers,dedicated toimproving thelot of theirfamilies anddependents. In theUK, Europe, NorthAmerica, Japan,Australia and New Zealandmy fellow travellers have beenorganisations campaigning for trade andsocial justice and fair trade buyersworking to expand fair trade, designing,marketing and selling a very individualrange of products, each one of which, ifwe listen, tells a story of heartache andhope. Within Shared Interest I haveshared my journey with our members,the directors, council members, ourrepresentatives and my staff colleagues –they have been inspirational.

That’s the road I have travelled buthow have things changed? Rememberthat Shared Interest’s mission is tofinance fair trade. Eight years ago weprovided credit facilities only to eightbuyer organisations. We are now lendingdirectly to almost 100 fair tradeorganisations and working with around400. Products introduced during the lastfew years such as our producer TermLoans have enabled us to finance thepurchase of trucks, kilns for firingceramics, the bulk purchase of rawmaterials, attendance at trade shows to

help expand sales, thepurchase of computers,

digital imaging,communication

equipment andother assets andexpenditurewhich will helpproducers growand develop their

businesses. OurCommercial Order

Export Creditproduct has enabled

producers to sourceorders from commercial or

non-fair trade buyers in theknowledge that Shared Interest will helpthem fulfil the order by providing thepre-finance they need to purchase rawmaterials and pay the workers when thehandicrafts have been completed and thefoodstuffs have been gathered andprocessed. As far as buyers areconcerned we now provide creditfacilities to almost every major fair tradebuyer worldwide. We have helped themexpand their businesses and they in turnhave enabled us to reach the producerswho need our help.

How has Shared Interest changed? Thetotal of members’ funds that we need todo our work has more than doubled; staffnumbers have quadrupled as new skillsare required and like all growingorganisations our systems are continuallybeing updated to keep pace with thedemands placed on them. We areconstantly in discussion with producersand buyers who need our help or whocan help us fulfil our mission. Recentlywe have been talking to fair trade tea,

pineapple and banana producers - Iwonder who Shared Interest will betalking to tomorrow?

What about the memories along theway? I long ago realised that it is not theplaces you visit that are most important;it’s the people you meet and I’m notgoing to mention one or two because thatwould be unfair and to mention everyoneI would like to would fill QuarterlyReturn so back to these memories ... Iwas stung by bees in Mexico, bitten byants in Uganda, involved in a Baby-Taxiaccident in Bangladesh, picked tea andbananas, planted coffee bushesand tried my hand at carvingwood and soapstone (it’smore difficult than youthink) but perhaps acouple of my mostpoignantmemories werebeing asked tosay the SelkirkGrace beforeenjoying a mealunder a Kenyanevening skycovered in starsand receiving agift of a few ofgrains of sugar whenI visited the home of awonderful women in theslums of Bombay. She hadnothing else to give me but insistedthat I could not leave her home withoutreceiving hospitality.

I think my last memory sums up fairtrade - it’s all about sharing.

I will miss you all but I am sure ourpaths will cross again.

it’s all about sharingreflection

Eight years

ago we

provided credit

facilities only

to eight buyer

organisations

Photograph by DavidRansom for Cafédirect,

courtesy of Traidcraft

Colin Crawfordpicking tea in Kenyaearlier this year

Not an investmentWhen I joined, I understood that Shared

Interest wasn’t really a friendly society likeothers - it’s basically a spiritual thing - doingGod’s work in a most practical way - but‘investment’ for ourselves it is not! It’s apurely ‘lending’ enterprise for which there isn’tactually any return. Rock bottom interestpaid to us enables a loan to a Third Worldenterprise at a nominal interest rate - thepurpose of which is to finance the basicmechanics ‘at base’ of the banking processesand to pay necessary salaries. It is not meantto be ‘profit making’.

The whole concept is attractive on thisbasis. It is a way of ‘sacrificial giving’ if youlike. A ‘charity’ in which we lend rather thatgive a donation. We are investing in peopleand the ‘return’ is a rise in their livingstandard, not ours.

Lynda Barbour

Responsible consumptionI warmly thank David Wainwright for his

reply to my letter on the environmental costof plastic buckets (QR52). My question wasasked out of genuine curiosity and I am verysorry if I gave the impression that Idisapproved of the beekeepers’ efforts toimprove their livelihoods. I completely agreethat 10,000 buckets are insignificantcompared to Western overconsumption. Mygeneral point was simply that if we aremindful of our impact on the environment,we may come up with benign alternatives orwe may decide that the impact is justified.

Perhaps the purpose of fair trade is toenable producers in developing nations toincrease their quality of life whilstsafeguarding the environment. And perhapsenvironmental concern is sometimes a luxuryenjoyed by affluent people. I am sure I cansometimes be a hypocrite.

Western governments are probably notdoing enough to facilitate responsibleconsumption. But we can minimize our useof cars and aeroplanes and we can buy localfood and object to excessive packaging. Andwe can enjoy fair-trade tea, bananas, andhoney etc. thanks to the efforts of producersand fair-trade companies.

A J Smith

How does it work?Unlike some regular mailings which I

receive, each QR is read with interest. SharedInterest seems to be an example of making alittle go a long way effectively and the storiesreported in QR are heart-warming.

What QR seems to leave unsaid, and aboutwhich I would like to know more, is whathappens between the time money is receivedby Shared Interest from a member and thetime when the loan to a producer is repaid toits source.

How is a loan negotiated and who makescontact with whom, and by what means?How is the loan made available? How doproducers negotiate their contracts withbuyers?

I write in anticipation of learning moreabout how the assets of Shared Interest areused to help impoverished producers.

Peter Van De Kasteele

Stephanie Sturrock replies:

Shared Interest’s main credit product isshort-term trade credit provided through theClearing House for fair trade buyers andproducers. A full explanation of how this worksis on our website and in our most recent annualreport.

Before a credit facility is set up, we carry outa number of checks on the finances,management, structure and fair trade values ofthe organisation. Most of the organisations wework with are members of the International FairTrade Association (www.ifat.org) or on a FairTrade Labelling Organisation International(FLO) register (www.fairtrade.net).

Producers negotiate contracts with buyerscompletely independently of Shared Interest.Because producers have access to credit andthey know that fair trade buyers are prepared topay a fair price for their goods, it gives themmore confidence when negotiating with othercommercial buyers.

Once an order is made and Shared Interest isnotified, we advance the funds, normally in USdollars, to the producer by electronic transferthrough the international banking system.Normally we send around 50% of the ordervalue up front on behalf of the buyer, but wecan advance up to 80% of the order value onthe producer’s account if they have a facilitywith us. The funds are repaid to us by the buyeronce the goods are delivered.

Funds not currently lent out are held with theCo-operative Bank, with mutual buildingsocieties in the UK or with social financeinstitutions (like Ecology Building Society andTriodos Bank).

comment & feedbackWelcome to the new look QR. It’s been

three years since the last design change, in

which time there have been big changes in

the campaign for fair trade, the market for

ethical investment and in the way that

Shared Interest works.

Fair trade foods are now mainstream

products widely available in supermarkets,

and the range is growing rapidly. Two major

fair trade companies, Cafédirect and

Traidcraft, have had very successful share

issues. The market for ethical investment is

booming and becoming increasingly

professional and competitive.

Shared Interest has kept pace with these

developments and has improved its

marketing and promotional materials.

After years of decline, membership is

starting to grow again. If the new look QR

attracts new and younger members the

small increase in production costs (which I

am sure some readers will question) will

have been an excellent investment.

In the last issue of QR we announced that

Shared Interest was planning to improve

the way it connected with producers ‘in the

field’ - a project called Delivering the Vision.

This is now moving ahead. There have been

various organisational changes at the head

office including the creation of new jobs,

and Shared Interest has started to work

with new partners in developing countries.

The first reports from a rural finance

specialist in Central America are already

indicating that Shared Interest may need to

adapt its ‘finance for fair trade’ services.

Banana growers in Costa Rica and carvers in

Kenya may both be fair trade producers, but

their financial needs are very different.

David Parker, Editor

Shared Interest is a financial co-operative. It uses

the pooled investments of its members in the UK

to effect real and lasting improvements to people’s

lives in poorer parts of the world.

Shared Interest Society Limited

25 Collingwood Street,

Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1JE

Telephone: 0191 233 9100 Fax: 0191 233 9110

www.shared-interest.com

Quarterly Return is the newsletter of Shared

Interest Society Ltd, which is registered with the

Registrar of Friendly Societies, number 27093R.

The views expressed in QR are not necessarily those

of the Society. QR is edited by David Parker,

designed by Alpha Communication, a workers’

co-operative, and printed on recycled paper.

CURRENT INTEREST RATEfrom 1 December 2002: 0.5%

This is your opportunity to express your views about Shared

Interest and the work we are doing on your behalf, and to

debate with other members.

Write to QR Editor, Shared Interest, 25 Collingwood Street,

Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1JE

or email to qr.editor@shared-interest.com.

Please mark your letters ‘for publication’. Letters may be edited.