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The FIG Tree

The FIG Tree opened in Garstang in 2011 as a Fair Trade Visitor Centre and Café to support the International Fair Trade Towns movement and host visitors to Garstang, as the world's first Fair Trade Town (FIG stands for Fairtrade In Garstang). The people of Garstang voted for its unique status at a public meeting in April 2000 and there are now almost 5,000 Fair Trade Initiatives, including many capital cities, towns, universities, schools and faith groups, stretching across the globe.

 

Sadly, The FIG Tree was forced to close in Garstang in November 2014 and set up in St. John's church in Lancaster until it was flooded during storm Desmond in December the following year. After a short period jointly running a café at Lancaster Priory The FIG Tree finally closed to the public in 2018. We still operate as a social enterprise however, based in Lower Dolphinholme, outside Lancaster, where we make chocolate using beans directly sourced from farmers in New Koforidua, Ghana – Africa’s first Fair Trade Town. The FIG Tree also runs an educational programme including our innovative and unique interactive chocolate making workshops for schools and houses an exhibition focussing on fair trade and trade injustice by exploring the three interrelated themes; Fair Trade and Fair Trade Towns, The British Transatlantic Slave Trade and its abolition and Quaker Heritage in '1652 country'.

 

For further information, to arrange a chocolate workshop in your school or to visit The FIG Tree contact us at: thefigtreechocolate@gmail.com

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