Connecting cities Building successes

The term Fair Trade is widely known as a social movement aiming to help small and local producers and to promote sustainability. Originally associated with developing countries, the term has during recent years also been connected with sustainable development in a local context. During recent years, a trend in Sweden is for cities and municipalities to apply for a Fair Trade diploma. But what does it mean to become Fairtrade City?

A Fairtrade City is a mark of quality to cities and municipalities who commit to ethical consumption, according to the Fair Trade website in Sweden. The purpose of Fairtrade Cities is to increase the knowledge and the consumption of goods that has been produced with regards to human rights.  The responsibility lies not only on the city, but also on the private sector and the social economy. Thus, becoming a Fairtrade City is a matter of an integrated approach.

There are a number of criteria that has to be fulfilled in order to qualify as a Fairtrade City, involving ethic purchasing, active information policies about sustainable development and a supply of ethical marked products in stores and at workplaces. There is also a requirement that the city increases its consumption of fair-trade products every year.

The diploma was originally introduced in the UK in year 2000. Today there are more than 700 Fairtrade cities in the world. In 2006, the City of Malmö became the first Fair Trade city in Sweden. At present, there are 29 Fairtrade cities in Sweden, and the popularity is steadily increasing

Read more:

• Fair Trade Sweden’s – website

Martin Grander
City of Malmö
Sweden URBACT National Dissemination Point