MULHOLLAND BACKS FAIRTRADE CHRISTMAS FAIR

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 10th Nov 2006

Greg Mulholland Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West today showed his support for the Headingley Fairtrade Christmas Gift Fair. The fair which is in its second year will be held at the Headingley Methodist Church from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock.

The Fairtrade Gift Fair offers a huge range of fairly traded goods including high quality crafts, including jewellery from Peru and sandstone carvings from Kenya , toys and musical instruments from India , Christmas cards and many other fair-trade products.

Greg who was today looking at preparations for the fair, said "I fully support fairtrade initiatives such as this. It is very important that we provide opportunities for small scale producers to compete fairly with multinational firms. It will help some of the poorest people to trade their way out of poverty. I therefore would recommend people to support this very worthy venture"

Globally about 400 producer groups in nearly 50 countries benefit from the international fairtrade system which enables small scale producers from developing countries a fair price for their goods and skills. This allows them both to support their families and to build up education and health facilities in their communities.