Fairtrade in Hartlepool
Hartlepool this year celebrates twenty years as a recognised Fairtrade Town, the first in the Tees Valley to gain this status. Supported by the Borough Council, and now part of the Hartlepool Food Partnership, we work with schools, churches, community groups and the media to spread the word about Fairtrade and how the Fairtrade mark guarantees a fair price for the producer. We also work with retailers and cafes to stock or provide a range of Fairtrade products for the customer.
When shopping or eating out look out or ask for Fairtrade products. Let us know at fairtradehartlepool1@gmail.com about what you have found and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hpoolfairtrade. Keep scrolling to find out where in the town sells Fairtrade products.
To find out more about how Hartlepool became a Fairtrade town, please scroll down to below the tables and maps.
What is the Aim of Fairtrade?
Fairtrade is a different way of doing business and a growing international movement for change. By ensuring producers earn enough for today, and a little extra for tomorrow, Fairtrade seeks to put humanity back into international trade, through our everyday decisions. Many farmers and workers in developing countries struggle to provide for their families, despite working hard to provide us with products with the FAIRTRADE® mark, you can be sure that:
- A fair price has been paid to the producer
- A little extra has been paid for the producer group to invest in their communities, environment or strengthening their business. Projects are chosen democratically by farmers and workers
- Workers’ rights and environmental standards are met
- Find out more at Fairtrade Foundation
What is a Fairtrade Town?
Fairtrade Town Status is awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation, to recognise communities where everyone’s doing their bit for Fairtrade. From the Council to cafes, colleges to community groups, everyone can do something and in a Fairtrade Town, they are! There are over 1000 Fairtrade Towns across the world, taking community action for trade justice.
Links and Contacts
Email: fairtradehartlepool1@gmail.com
Local sources of Fairtrade products
Please find below tables and maps showing where Fairtrade products can be bought in Hartlepool. The first map shows every retailer that sells Fairtrade; please click on a pointer to see the full list of Fairtrade products that they sell. Subsequent maps/tables display where different categories of Fairtrade goods can be bought, including chocolate, coffee, sugar and tea.
We hope to soon expand these lists with further local retailers, as well as cafes/restaurants that use Fairtrade products (for example sugar). If you would like to be included on these lists, or know somewhere that should be, please let us know at fairtradehartlepool1@gmail.com.
Fairtrade products at each retailer
Fairtrade chocolate products
| Shop | Chocolate Boxes | Chocolate Bars | Cooking Chocolate | Chocolate Drizzle | Chocolate Maltesers |
| Asda | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tesco | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lidl | Yes | Yes | |||
| Lidl | |||||
| Morrisons | Yes | Yes | |||
| Aldi | Yes | Yes | |||
| Aldi | Yes | Yes | |||
| Sainsburys | Yes |
Fairtrade cocoa products
| Shop | Cadbury Cocoa Life products | Cocoa | Drinking Chocolate |
| Asda | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| M and S | Yes | ||
| Tesco | Yes | Yes | |
| Morrisons | Yes |
Fairtrade coffee products
| Shop | Coffee (Bags) | Coffee (Beans) | Coffee (Capsules/Pods) | Coffee (Ground) | Coffee (Instant) |
| Asda | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| M and S | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Tesco | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lidl | Yes | ||||
| Lidl | Yes | ||||
| Morrisons | Yes | Yes | |||
| Sainsburys | Yes |
Fairtrade sugar products
| Shop | Sugar (demerara) | Sugar (golden granulated) | Jam | Marmalade |
| M and S | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lidl | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lidl | Yes | Yes |
Fairtrade tea products
| Shop | Tea (Breakfast) | Tea (Earl Grey) | Tea (Green) | Tea (Loose) | Tea (bags) |
| Asda | Yes | ||||
| M and S | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tesco | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fairtrade bananas and further products
| Shop | Ice Cream | Bananas | Flowers/Roses | Biscuits | Seasonal (Easter) | Wine |
| Asda | Yes | Yes | ||||
| M and S | Yes | |||||
| Tesco | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Lidl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lidl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Morrisons | Yes | |||||
| Aldi | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Aldi | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Sainsburys | Yes |
Fairtrade product sources – contact details
| Shop | Phone number | Address |
| Asda | 01429 239000 | Marina Way, Hartlepool TS24 0XR |
| Tesco | 0345 677 9335 | Belle Vue Way, Hartlepool TS25 1UP |
| M and S | 01429 528706 | Anchor Retail Park, 2 Marina Way, Hartlepool TS24 0XR |
| Lidl | 020 3966 5566 | Jesmond Gardens, Hartlepool TS24 8PJ |
| Lidl | 020 3966 5566 | Brenda Rd, Hartlepool TS25 1XJ |
| Morrisons | 01429 222609 | Morrisons, Clarence Rd, Hartlepool TS24 8BZ |
| Aldi | 0800 042 0800 | Dunston Rd, Hartlepool TS26 0EN |
| Aldi | 0800 042 0800 | Brenda Rd, Hartlepool TS25 1SD |
| Sainsburys | 03300 137436 | 49 Murray St, Tottenham, Hartlepool TS26 8PQ |
Online sources of further Fairtrade products
| Item Category | Online sources (Asda, Tesco, Ringtons, Ocado) |
| Chocolate | Chocolate: boxes, bars, Malteasers, spread, rice cakes (chocolate covered) |
| Coffee | Coffee: bags, beans, capsules/pods, ground, instant |
| Cocoa | Cocoa, cocoa powder, drinking chocolate |
| Tea | Tea: bags, loose, Earl Grey, Breakfast, Green |
| Sugar | Sugar: demerara, golden granulated |
| Ice Cream | Ice cream |
| Preserves | Jam, marmalade |
| Fruits and Nuts | Baby plum tomatoes, bananas, mangoes, nuts |
| Miscellaneous | Biscuits, molasses, vanilla extract |
| Drinks | Lemonade/fruit drinks, Smoothies, Wine |
How Hartlepool became a Fairtrade Town
The story begins last century when the Jubilee Debt Campaign was formed to help developing countries whose governments had taken out huge international debts which very often had no benefit to the people but who were crippled by interest payments which continued even when the principal sum had long been paid back. This was to coincide with the Jubilee Year of 2000.
Jubilee 2000 was a global campaign that led ultimately, to the cancellation of more than $100 billion of debt owed by 35 of the poorest countries.
Some debts were cancelled, enabling those countries to develop health and education services. But the fight for justice went on with the Make Poverty History Campaign. In Hartlepool a group of people, mainly based in the churches, went on protest and support movements to put bands of people round Birmingham, Cologne and Genoa showing the G8 governments how they felt.
It became obvious that, although this was a way of making a point, something different was needed and so the Hartlepool Global Peace and Justice Group was formed by a small band of people to consider what could be done. Fairtrade was in its infancy and this seemed to be something they could support as a group and individuals. The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992 following persistent appeals for fairness in trade from Mexican small-scale coffee farmers, by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft, the World Development Movement and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.
There weren’t a huge number of fairtrade food things available to begin with. In 1994, Green and Black’s Maya Gold chocolate hit the shelves, followed shortly by Cafedirect coffee, Percol coffee and Clipper tea. They were the first products in the UK to carry the Fairtrade mark, a guarantee that the tea, coffee, cocoa and sugar farmers had been paid a fair price for their product. However, the fairtrade mark meant more than this. Each group was given a premium on top of the price which could be spent on what the workers decided they needed, whether that was education, health facilities, water or ways to make production easier and more efficient. There was also a stress on the environment and a natural way of growing without the overuse of things like fertilisers.
Maya Gold Chocolate was one of the first products in the UK to carry the Fairtrade logo.
Women were also given a voice in their communities and more respect. What wasn’t there to support? The group started supporting fairtrade in small ways like having a basket on display in supermarkets containing fairtrade products in Fairtrade Fortnight with people on hand to explain what it was all about. There weren’t enough products to need a trolley in those days! Bananas and sugar soon joined the tea, coffee and chocolate, followed by Divine Chocolate, fruit, juices and flowers, not forgetting wine.
A campaign was needed to persuade manufacturers to use fairtrade in the goods they made, so there were letters written to politicians, manufacturers and supermarkets and also to businesses asking them to use fairtrade in the workplace where, of course, fairtrade tea and coffee was served at all meetings.
In 2001 Garstang declared itself the first Fairtrade town. When the HGP&J group heard about this, a new ambition was born. There were various criteria which had to be achieved among which were a certain number of shops selling, and cafes serving, fairtrade goods. Businesses were to be encouraged to use fairtrade and churches to serve fairtrade tea and coffee after service and at coffee mornings. Schools were encouraged to teach about fairtrade and this was often linked with their study of ecology and the environment. A Fairtrade Town Steering Group had to be formed and the council had to pass a motion supporting fairtrade and use it at their meetings. Our then M.P. Peter Mandelson was a great help in gaining support, followed by his successor, Iain Wright M.P.
One important thing which was needed was publicity and this was where the fun began, often supported by Hartlepool school children. This was an opportunity to use any links with people that were possible. One year a Fairtrade Joust was held at Summerhill when Lady Fairtrade obviously swept the field. “Who wants to be a Fairtrade Millionaire” was held at the Grand Hotel. A request for permission to use the theme tune was granted, along with a recorded message from Chris Tarrant, introducing the evening. A huge chocolate bar was sent on the bus to Stockton and Middlesbrough and all the passengers got a mini Fairtrade chocolate. Other years a giant banana complete with its own ticket arrived by train and brave volunteers abseiled from the Transporter Bridge. Four people, two of them students, managed to live on £1 a day, all of them learning what life is like when every penny has to be counted and considered.
The giant banana, complete with its own ticket, arrives by train.
Possibly the event which created the most publicity was the re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party when two members of the Diving Club, dressed as unfairly traded tea bags, were thrown into the Hartlepool docks from a sailing ship by pupils from a local school. This was even on television.
The re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party at Hartlepools Marina.
During Fairtrade Fortnight, various competitions were held for local schools with a carved wooden fairtrade banana as the trophy. Strangely enough, many of these competitions involved delicious cakes and biscuits made with fairtrade ingredients, though stories, posters and drawings also featured.
The carved wooden Fairtrade banana trophy.
Hartlepool first became a Fairtrade Town in 2005, the first town in the Tees Valley to do so. The other local towns quickly followed suit as where Hartlepool leads, others follow. The status has to be renewed and we have managed to keep it, even through the difficult years of Covid, the latest renewal being at the end of 2024. Buying fairtrade is much easier these days with a huge amount of goods containing fairtrade ingredients and is something which we all can do- so, here’s to the next 20 years of Hartlepool as a Fairtrade Town!
Hartlepool becomes a Fairtrade Town in 2005.