Scottish Fair Trade Nation Lecture 2018

Fairtrade: enabling sustainable, quality coffee from small-holder value chains

Monday 30th April at 6pm

Lecture Theatre 1, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee

This year, Ewan Reid, Director of Coffee at Glasgow-based, Matthew Algie, one of the UK’s leading coffee roasters specialising in sustainable sourcing will be speaker.

With a 20-year Fairtrade heritage starting with the UK’s first Fairtrade espresso in 1997, today nearly 90% of the company’s sourcing is Fairtrade. Matthew Algie supplies coffee to the cafe and hospitality sector including Marks & Spencer coffee shops and around 2,500 independent coffee shops, bars and restaurants.

Ewan has worked for the company since joining as a graduate in 1993 and joined the Board in 2002.

With a background in food science, he oversees a variety of business areas including roastery operations, quality assurance, green coffee supply chain, R&D and sustainability. A frequent visitor to Matthew Algie’s supply chain partner co-operatives in producing countries, he is also a member of Fairtrade International’s Coffee Advisory Council.

At the Fair Trade Nation Lecture, Ewan will provide an overview of why Matthew Algie choose to use Fairtrade coffee. He will also explore the Fairtrade coffee market and the challenges and opportunities of the Fairtrade coffee system.

The lecture will start at 6pm and will be followed by Q&A and discussion.

Tea and Coffee will be served from 5.30pm. There will be drinks and refreshments afterwards.

This is a free event. All are welcome but please do register for a ticket on Eventbrite here.

More good news on jobs, whilst sterling rises

The pound drew level with the rate it reached prior to the referendum, hitting $1.43 again. The only negative forecast of the Remain campaign that they kept repeating after the event because they thought it had more chance of success has now joined the others as wrong.

During the Referendum campaign I was frequently asked by interviewers to defend why I thought jobs would go up, housing would be unaffected and the economy would continue to grow, as the Remain camp with all the official forecasters behind them said the opposite. They told us with all the authority of establishment error and malfunctioning models that in the first year or so after the vote we would have a recession, jobs would fall, unemployment would rise, the pound would fall and house prices would fall. I said the opposite of all of those save for the pound. There I said after we vote to leave the pound will go up and down depending on our policies compared to other countries policies, as it has done for many years all the time we have been in the EU. The Bank decided on loose money in 2016 so the pound fell, and has decided to tighten money this year so it is rising.

Yesterday we learned that another 55,000 jobs were added to the total in the three months to February. Employment is up by 427,000 compared to a year ago, with most of the new jobs being full time. This takes unemployment down again to 4.2%, way below the average levels in the Eurozone. Pay went up by 2.8%, so we are back with real increases in pay now inflation is subsiding. There has been no fall in real incomes since the vote. Unemployment is well below the levels prior to the vote and pay in money terms is rising faster now than in 2016.

The UK economy is good at generating extra jobs. Now we need to encourage businesses to put more capital into boosting productivity, so we need fewer new people to come in to the UK to take low paid jobs, and so we can boost pay more for people already working and living here.

News story: International Trade Secretary urges UK business to show off the best of Britain at Expo 2020 Dubai

Dr Fox announced that the Department for International Trade (DIT) is looking for an innovative, award-winning design concept for the UK’s pavilion at Expo 2020, which creates the most original, inspiring and memorable visitor experience possible.

The Expo 2020 theme will be ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the future’ with an expected footfall of 25 million visitors from around the world, providing an ideal platform to project Britain as a global force for prosperity, innovation, creativity and thought leadership. As this is the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East, the opportunities to connect with one of the most dynamic, young, and fastest growing regions in the world are immense.

The UK’s participation will consist of a self-build pavilion, supported by an accompanying programme of business and cultural events all related to the theme: Global Britain – Innovating for a Shared Future.

Britain has a proud tradition in supporting global expos, hosting the first ever Expo, The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry at Crystal Palace in 1851, with previous winning entries at Shanghai 2010 and Milan 2015. This historic expertise was a key factor in British companies, including Foster and Partners and Grimshaw Architects, winning contracts worth £1 billion to help build and deliver Expo 2020 Dubai itself.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said:

I am delighted to announce that the UK will be participating in Expo 2020 Dubai which will offer UK businesses a fantastic opportunity to showcase the best of British innovation, over 150 years on from the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, the world’s first ever expo.

As an international economic department, DIT is ensuring British businesses make the most of growing markets and export their goods around the world. The festival will be a major showcase for the UK in the Middle East, and a shop window for the best of our creativity and innovation.

Further information

Expo 2020 Dubai takes place between 20 October 2020 and 10 April 2021 and is based on the theme: Connecting Minds, Creating the future. This will be the first Expo to take place in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region (MEASA). 180 nations will take part in Expo 2020 Dubai alongside NGOs and sponsors.
Six million visitors attended the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. This gave rise to the development of the area now known as ‘Albertopolis’ in London, which contains a large number of educational and cultural sites including the Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall and the V&A.
Companies have until the 24 April to apply to design the pavilion – applications should be made online
Companies interested in wider Expo supply opportunities should visit the Expo procurement portal for further information
DIT is holding a series of events across Britain for everyone interested in the design tender.

About Department for International Trade

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) has overall responsibility for promoting UK trade across the world and attracting foreign investment to our economy. We are a specialised government body with responsibility for negotiating international trade policy, supporting business, as well as delivering an outward-looking trade diplomacy strategy.

Saarc Agricultural Experts Discuss Ways to Address Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture

Agricultural experts from SAARC nations will present a position paper on ways and means of addressing impact of climate change on agriculture and discuss adaptation measures for climate resilient agrarian systems at the three-day SAARC regional Conference on “Climate Resilient Agricultural Policies, Strategies and Programmes”.

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Sweden India Joint Action Plan (April 17, 2018)

At the invitation of Prime Minister Löfven, Prime Minister Modi paid an official visit to Stockholm on 16-17 April 2018.

Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Löfven met on 17 April and recalled their Joint Statement issued in Mumbai in 2016, welcomed progress so far on its implementation and reconfirmed their commitment to the Joint Statement as the overall political framework for cooperation.

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