It's a fair shop

Want to shop 'til you drop with a clear conscience? Then choosing Fairtrade may be the ethically-enhanced answer for you. And now one islander has made joining the green team even simpler. Suzanne Heneghan grabs a cyber-shopping bag to find out more GLOBAL, guilt-free shopping is just a quick click away thanks to a ground-breaking new website, based in Guernsey.

Mondomundi is a one-stop, online ordering shop for goods endorsed by Fairtrade, the independent organisation helping disadvantaged producers in developing countries. Ethical products from coffee to cotton and fudge to footballs are available to a booming band of cyber-shoppers, eager to join the good fight for international fair trade.

The local website is the brainchild of Phil Soulsby of St Martin's, who hit on the idea during last summer's controversial G8 summit. With world leaders discussing Third World debt and Live Aid rallying nations behind its anti-poverty crusade, the need for fairer trading practices was becoming increasingly clear. But Phil realised that there wasn't a retailer dealing purely in such products. 'Most of these things get just a few feet on the shelves in supermarkets. But I had never seen a Fairtrade shop. I wanted to find out more and also feel I was doing my bit to help. '

An Internet search

revealed that there wasn't a shopping website either, although a couple of sites have sprung up since. But Phil's Mondomundi pages have been in the making since September and are already well established, stocking about 150 products and receiving hundreds of hits every day.

The name sums up the essence of the company. Phil chose the title - a hybrid of the words 'mondo' and 'mundi' - because both mean 'world' in several languages. Joining them in one phrase mirrors the Fairtrade Foundation's own aim: to bring our world and developing countries together. All the goods on the website are either Fairtrade

accredited or are sourced from organisations which comply with its principles. Those approved by Fairtrade display its official logo.

Mondomundi received its first order on 21 January and business is already taking off as word spreads about the site. Phil, who has lived in Guernsey for 15 years and has a finance background, received 'huge support' with the website's design from local IT firm Redbridge Technology. He admits it took a lot of time and implementation to make the site work: two months from start to going live. But the result, he believes, is impressive and he has received a lot of positive feedback.

Getting the goods together was fairly straightforward. Phil contacted a range of wholesalers including Traidcraft, the largest supplier of Fairtrade goods. Mondomundi's biggest seller by far is organic, green-leaf tea. But chocolate and honey, sugar and cereal bars are also very popular. New products are being added all the time, with a range of silver, Mexican jewellery due soon and cotton T-shirts also on the way.

Phil makes a margin on all the goods he packs off from Guernsey to his website customers, although he thinks it unlikely he will make anything resembling a profit for a while. But he has big, long-term plans for the business.Although a staunch advocate of fairer trading, he has no inner conflict about taking his own cut: in fact he is proud of the fact. He explains that in order for the business to bring Fairtrade to the masses, it must be profitable for everyone, all the way along the chain.

'We want the end users to buy the products because they are good - not because they feel sorry for those who are making them. People should buy them because they are quality items. Ultimately they will feel good about it because they are Fairtrade products.'

The key is about establishing commercial trading with producers. It is not charity trading. This means farmers and workers develop their skills and are able to compete without help in world markets.

'In fact the ultimate aim of Fairtrade, says Phil, is for there to be no need for it to exist.

'It's not a question of goods being unfair as opposed to fair. The issue is more that the prices producers are selling goods for in the developing world are, in many cases, far below the costs of making them.

'Fairtrade wants to help make sure that does not happen.

'It wants to avoid people being exploited, or losing out, by competing with slave-labour rates.'

Most products are environmentally friendly, with many producers surviving without using expensive pesticides.

This sits well with Fairtrade's principles of supporting a sustainable economy while protecting the environment.

With Fairtrade Fortnight - an annual awareness-raising celebration - now just days away, Phil is already planning his next move.

He hopes to soon open Guernsey's first Fairtrade shop in St Martin's. 'I believe the customer interest is there,' he said. 'It's a very exciting time.'

The news will delight a growing campaign, backed by the Guernsey Press, to help the island gain official Fairtrade status. It is something Phil believes is very achievable.

'It would really help focus people's attention, if we did. And I think we will. Guernsey people tend to support things like this.

'There is a good standard of living here and people like to try, where they can, to give something back.'

* Phil's website can be found at www.mondomundi.com

sheneghan@guernsey-press.com

To mark the launch of Fairtrade's fortnight next week, the Guernsey Press will be encouraging readers, local businesses and organisations to sign up to the island's bid to gain official Fairtrade status.

Twelve months ago the Guernsey Fairtrade Steering Group was formed after realising that many people in Guernsey had started switching to the ethical products.

Its chairman, Steve Mauger, said it wanted to support this by providing information on stockists and new goods as they became available. It also decided to join several other UK towns and cities in bidding for Fairtrade status.

To achieve this, Guernsey must meet certain criteria including gaining support from the States, local schools, churches, businesses and the media.

He added: 'A year later we are now so close to achieving this aim.'

Already scores of people and organisations have put their names to the group's campaign. In May 2005, Deputies Mike Torode and Peter Roffey helped gain States backing for the move. And the island has already been visited by a high-profile supporter, TV news presenter George Alagiah, who is patron of the Fairtrade Foundation. But the campaign still needs more people to get involved.

Anyone who wants to support the bid can contact Steve Mauger on 240240 to register. A full list of supporters will be displayed on the Guernsey Press website at www.thisisguernsey.com and more details and information about the sign-up campaign will appear in Monday's edition of the Guernsey Press.