Members' Newsletter Quarterly Return 86

QUARTERLY RETURN 86 Winter 2012/13

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“WE THINK WE NEED TO BE PROSPEROUS BEFORE WE CAN BE GENEROUS”

CAFÉDIRECT MADE THE Small WAY

“Humans can learn a lot from the bees”

Round up of our latest members’ event in Oxford

Meet Cafédirect’s new CEO, John Steel

News from our longstanding customer, Apicoop

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09/01/2013 09:06:31

Welcome Happy New Year to you all, I hope that you enjoyed the festive break.

Here at Shared Interest we are looking forward to the year ahead and we already have lots of activity in the pipeline.

This year our AGM will be on Friday 15 March in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The event will be held at the Assembly Rooms, you can find all the information you need within the enclosed AGM papers. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

We hope that members of our overseas teams will be on hand at the AGM; in the meantime you can find a summary of their recent activity on pages 10 and 11. We have recently appointed a Monitoring and Evaluations Officer in Kenya to help specifically with our Comic Relief lending as well as the evaluation of our regular activity.

In addition to the AGM we will be hosting members’ events across the country so watch out for activity in your area. A summary of our most recent event in Oxford starts on page three.

For the first time since 2008, we are in a position to be able to offer interest on Share Accounts; the Board has proposed an interest rate of 0.5% and although this needs to be voted on by the membership in March, further information on the proposal can be found on the back page.

Wishing you all the very best for 2013, Patricia Alexander, Managing Director

Keeping up with WFTO As you know, Shared Interest maintains strong links with fair trade organisations across the globe. One of these partnerships is with the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). Our Customer Services Manager, Malcolm Curtis is Treasurer of the WFTO Europe Board and represents Europe on the Global Board.

Malcolm was recently joined by colleagues Tim Morgan and Louise Mounsey at the WFTO Europe AGM before he travelled on to join the Global AGM and Board meeting in India. The regions hold their own conferences to enable them to provide feedback to the Global Board on papers and draft resolutions.

The WFTO Europe biennial conference and AGM took place between 4-6 October, in Elspeet, the Netherlands. The aim of the conference was to debate the strategy for next year’s activity. Topics discussed included: the future of fair trade in Europe, the new WFTO Fair Trade System, retailer standards, membership and monitoring, fair prices and wages, advocacy and the Fair Trade Towns campaign. A full report on the topics discussed is available within the minutes that are available on WFTO’s website - www.wfto.com In addition to the above, WFTO Europe is working on the ‘Beyond 2015 Fair Trade Campaign’ in collaboration with the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) and Fairtrade International (FLO). The campaign aims to set goals beyond the Millennium Development Goals deadline; looking at ways to address the reform of international trade rules.

The Global AGM in Goa was attended by 126 members, mainly from Asia, as it formed part of their regional conference and AGM. In addition to signing off the accounts and activity within the year, a draft strategy paper was approved and progress on the WFTO Fair Trade System was presented. It is hoped that a public announcement regarding this certification scheme will be made in Spring 2013.

It has also been confirmed that the next biennial Global conference and AGM will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in May 2013. A number of fair trade activities have been planned with the support of the Brazilian government and for the period of the conference, Rio will be declared the global fair trade capital.

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Front cover photo: Farmer who supplies Cafédirect. Further information can be found at www.cafedirect.co.uk

09/01/2013 09:06:33

“WE THINK WE NEED TO BE PROSPEROUS

BEFORE WE CAN BE GENEROUS”

On Saturday 6 October the Shared Interest team travelled to Oxford to host a members’ event as part of our National Ethical Investment Week activities.

The subject of ethical investments is difficult to avoid in the current economic climate. We are constantly being asked by the media to question how the high street banks are utilising the funds that we deposit with them. On 6 October we were joined by almost 70 guests, a third of whom were Shared Interest members, to discuss the importance of ethical investment and its impact.

Non-Executive Director, Carol Wills opened the event. Her welcoming speech that discussed the history of the fair trade movement was so well received and so informative that we wanted to share a summary with you.

The Origins of fair trade “According to the Fairtrade Foundation over 80% of the British population is aware of Fairtrade – so I suppose that must include all of you! You all know that fair trade is about partnership, dialogue, transparency and respect, and that it seeks greater equity in international trade.

But where did it all begin?

In the 1940s, two US church-based groups began selling the crafts that WW2 volunteers had returned home with, at the back of churches on Sunday.

These groups survive today as Ten Thousand Villages and SERRV International.

Gradually other organisations began to emerge across the world. Groups of concerned citizens saw that disadvantaged people, often without land, had to use traditional skills to make things that could be sold – and that they needed help to access international markets. This was known as alternative trade. People recognised the injustice in conventional trading and decided to provide an alternative. They opened shops staffed mostly by volunteers which sold predominantly crafted goods.

By the late 1980s, these groups had established the International Federation for Alternative Trade (IFAT now called the WFTO).

At a conference in 1985, Michael Barratt Brown stood up and said: “There is much too much unfair trade in the world. It’s time for fair trade” and so the term was coined. Rather than remaining an alternative niche, the fair traders decided that they needed to tackle the inequities in international trade

through selling in the mainstream marketplace and by speaking out about the injustice they saw.

As all this was happening, the great crash in coffee prices of the late 1980s occurred which resulted in the destitution and death of many coffee farmers, particularly in Central America. There are many economists still today, who believe that market forces should always prevail and if people suffer as a result or even die because they can’t adapt, then so be it. But a small group of fair traders in the Netherlands, led by Nick Rozen and Frans van der Hoff, thought otherwise.

They came up with the idea of creating a guarantee for consumers based on paying a minimum price for coffee beans that would ensure the farmers covered their costs and received a surplus so that they could feed and house their families, educate their children and pay for health care if needed. The guarantee took the form of a label on the coffee sold in the Netherlands. It was called Max Havelaar. It would be like calling a scheme “Robin Hood” in the UK. Part of the idea was that in addition to a minimum price, buyers would also pay a small premium to be used by farmer co-operatives for community projects.

Other schemes followed quickly. In the UK, the Fairtrade Foundation was set up, initially as an independent labelling scheme and in 1994 the first product to carry the Fairtrade Mark was sold in supermarkets. In 1997 the various labelling initiatives formed FLO International, based in Bonn, Germany.

PROSPEROUS / GENEROUS CONTINUED > QR86 03

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09/01/2013 09:06:34

“To move towards a just economy and positive economic growth we need to recognise that economic structures should work for people not the other way around. Money needs to be ‘de-throned’ and we need to decide how we measure and value what counts.

The really valuable things in life are free and we need to turn things around and focus on what is valuable.”

Andrew ended of his presentation with the following statement: “The world in which we live is competitive, but is it happy? We think we need to be prosperous before we can be generous – we need to reverse this thinking.”

The individual initiatives would remain active in their own countries, licensing companies to carry the mark on products and promoting fair trade while the centralised body would develop standards and, through a separate entity, FLO Cert, certify the producers growing the commodity products for which standards had been developed.

It’s much more difficult to have standards for handcrafts than for agricultural products so WFTO introduced a label in 2004. Both FLO and WFTO work to an agreed set of principles which underpin the whole of the fair trade movement and are the basis on which standards and indicators are developed.

WFTO’s new system, to be launched shortly, will allow finally, for a label to go onto handcraft products.

As a movement, we have been hugely successful in promoting the idea of fairness in trade and now every supermarket has a Fairtrade brand. The volumes traded on fair trade terms are growing all the time running to over £1 billion a year in the UK alone - and this can only be good for producers.”

“Every economic decision has a moral consequence” Diana Mills was up next, she spoke passionately about the mining industry and how, as consumers, we need to be aware of how our funds are being used by the institutions we invest in.

Diana argued that every economic decision has a moral consequence. She explained that the environmental and human destruction caused by the mining industry is commonplace.

She argued that the relationship between mining and ethical investment is a tricky and sensitive one. She believes that we need to persuade fund and investment managers to change their habits, asking the audience: “Do you know where your investment goes?” Diana believes that we have a moral imperative to ask this. We need to be informed and engaged to be able to speak out and query fund managers. There is a legal obligation from companies to give an open and honest response and we have an ethical obligation to ask the questions.

“Money needs to be de-throned” Following her introduction, Carol opened up the floor to our panel of experts asking them to introduce the concept of ethical investments in relation to the fair trade movement and to share their experiences, encouraging discussion in the room about what people wanted from their investments.

Andrew Studdert-Kennedy began the debate by detailing his personal research into ethical finance, which he has written up for the St Paul’s Institute.

He summarised what he has discovered and how he believes we need to be more ethical in order to move towards a just economy.

According to Andrew we are a “nation in a hurry”, he believes that our easy access to credit and the fast and impersonal nature of technology has sped up our purchasing activity and left little time for reflection on our actions.

Fundamentally, Andrew believes that banking is inherently unstable. Money has become so important that it is now functions as a verb rather than a noun.

Andrew said: “In a world where money has become self-referring we’ve lost sight of what it’s all for.

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09/01/2013 09:06:36

“Ethical investors are in fact, seeking to not be unethical”

oUR pANELLISTS

Finally, Steve Hucklesby took the mic to share his opinion. Steve looked at how investments are made in the context of power. He explained how investment options like that of Shared Interest, engages the investor to the borrower.

Rev’d Canon Andrew Studdert-Kennedy

Steve argued that most ethical investors are in fact simply seeking to not be unethical. He questioned how we exclude unethical from our investment portfolios arguing that we can seek to be more ethical by investing for positive change. According to Steve we need an alternative approach to investments and new paradigms that incorporate mutuality and share risk.

shared interest’s role Our purpose at the event was to highlight that alternatives to what the panellists discussed do exist and do work. By exploring recent examples of our lending as well as member case studies, we showed that people can engage positively with their investments and be involved in the organisation using their money. We emphasised the value of Shared Interest as a co-operative whereby our members can and do ask questions of us, stressing that it is important for us that they continue to do so.

We truly believe in the people behind the products and that by utilising the funds invested by our members we are investing in communities and helping families to create sustainable livelihoods for themselves. If you know of anyone who may be interested in investing in a fairer world, please pass on one of the ‘recommend a friend’ cards attached towards the back of the newsletter.

Team Rector of Marlborough After reading philosophy, politics and economics at University, Andrew worked in the City in the 1980s as a stockbroker, and then in Westminster as Research Assistant for two MPs. In 1989 he was ordained and has been Rector of Marlborough since 2002. Andrew has contributed to a series for St Paul’s Institute entitled The Values of Money, an exploration of the financial crisis from a Christian perspective.

Diana Mills Co-ordinator of the National Justice and Peace Network Ethical Investment Group Born and raised in Argentina, Diana has lived in the UK since1982. An author and freelance journalist, she campaigns on environmental, ethical investment and social justice issues. Diana’s experience of working in the extractives industry (oil and gold) directed her to the role of trustee of the Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme.

Steve Hucklesby Policy Adviser within the Joint Public Issues team serving the Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed churches With a background and interest in international development and humanitarian aid, Steve joined the Methodist Church in 2003 as Secretary for International Affairs. Steve’s current role includes acting in an advisory capacity to the Joint Advisory Committee on the Ethics of Investment. Steve sits on the Board of the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR).

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09/01/2013 09:06:37

Cafédirect:

Made the Small Way

It has been over 20 years since Cafédirect was set up

by Oxfam, Traidcraft, Equal Exchange and Twin Trading in response to the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement which sent coffee prices plunging. Three years later, the group brought the first product bearing the Fairtrade logo to the UK. Since then Cafédirect has continued to pioneer a different way of doing business by putting the smallholder growers at the heart of what they do. They go above and beyond what is required by the Fairtrade Principles; offering more than a fair price, they reinvest at least 50% of their profits into the businesses that they work with.

In July this year, John Steel took over as CEO of Cafédirect.

With a background in the food and drink industry, John has spent his career working with smaller businesses that weren’t afraid to take on and challenge big business models. Whilst this is, as John describes: “his first dive into ethics”, he has long since had an interest in sustainable business and challenging the norm.

We spoke to John to find out more about Cafédirect and its plans for the future.

When asked about the ethos behind the organisation, John told us that it was about collaboration: “From the beginning, a group of likeminded individuals worked together to change the rules of the market. We have continued this spirit and maintain our commitment to working together with growers. By investing our profits in them, we help them to learn more about their businesses and encourage growth within their organisations. We see this as so much more important than hand-outs.”

Transforming the way that we think about business seems to be fundamental to Cafédirect’s mission and vision.

John told us: “Fair trade challenges the traditional view of what matters in business. If you dig beneath the surface of a fair trade organisation you will find they are genuinely trying to do business in a different way. If you’re not careful the business world can become all about money and power.”

“we forget that business can be a force for good

Despite this, John stressed the importance of maintaining commerciality within the marketplace, stating: “You need to keep strong commercially; otherwise, you’re not a business. You need to maintain a balance between the emotional and the business side of the organisation. There is a significant cost attached to doing business the way that we do and to undertake that commitment you really have to believe in the benefits to the growers and the eventual impact.”

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09/01/2013 09:06:39

We asked John how Cafédirect maintains the balance between supporting the growers it works with and ensuring the sustainability of its own organisation. He told us: “The exciting thing about Cafédirect is that governance is at the heart of what we do. We have two producers on our Board, one from Africa and one from Latin America. They represent our 38 grower organisations and remind us why we were set up in the first place. Our governance structure ensures that we remain balanced and focused.”

Key Facts • Cafédirect is the UK’s largest 100% Fairtrade hot drinks company - 100% of their products are 100% Fairtrade.

• A fair price is not enough. Cafédirect also gives growers a share of the profits, over 50% to date.

This is over and above Fairtrade requirements.

• Growers play a key role in every aspect of Cafédirect, from governance to product design. They have shares in the company and sit on the Board.

• Cafédirect doesn’t buy through traders or off a Fairtrade register. It buys directly from growers to give them the full price for their crop.

Like Shared Interest, Cafédirect only works with 100% Fairtrade products. John emphasised the challenge of getting across the impact that working in this way has on producers. He said: “The difficult thing is that we choose to do more than other people and invest in the products and the people that we work with. It is hard to get this across without being too, almost, worthy. Visiting growers and seeing how their businesses work really does change your opinion on the impact of fair trade, but it is incredibly difficult to express this on the supermarket shelf.”

He continued: “We hope to use our personal relationships with growers to tell the stories of the people that we work with, using these examples to catalyse and inspire change in the way that we consume in the UK.”

• Cafédirect works with 38 producer organisations from 13 countries and positively impacts the lives of more than 1.8 million people.

• Over the last three years Cafédirect has won 15 Great Taste Awards.

• In the UK, 12 people every second drink a cup of Cafédirect and do their bit to support a better way to do business.

Discussing their recent rebrand, John told us: “We are very pleased with the confidence and clarity of the new packaging. Businesses that care can often lack confidence. Going forward we want to show that we believe in our brand and the impact that we have on the growers that produce our products.”

So what does the future hold for Cafédirect?

According to John, they plan to champion the passionate work of the smallholders; continuing to work with them to develop their businesses to ensure great tasting products, improved lives and in general a better way of doing business.

When questioned about his role in the process, he simply said: “I hope that I have a lot to bring, but I also have a lot to learn. Hopefully that’s a great combination!”

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09/01/2013 09:06:43

HUMANS CAN LEARN A

FROM THE BEES

Those of you that have sampled Traidcraft’s Geobars have already tasted the honey produced by the beekeepers that make up the Chilean co-operative, Apicoop.

Shared Interest has been making payments to the co-operative since 2002. Most recently we provided a term loan that has enabled the group to diversify its product range and become the world’s first producer of Fairtrade blueberries.

Apicoop started out as a church-led community project that aimed to support smallholder farmers during the Pinochet regime. Today the group has over 300 producers spread throughout the country.

We caught up with General Manager, Chino Henriquez when he visited the Shared Interest office in October.

He explained what being a part of the co-operative meant to him and the other members, he said: “The thing we are most proud of is that altogether the members have over 1,000 children, approximately three per family, and all of these children have gone on to reach a level of education four or five times that of their parents.”

Chino shared the story of co-operative member, Joel Uribe who he met recently in Santa Barbara. Joel had asked Chino if he remembered his eldest daughter who was studying for a degree in medicine. The girl had called a few weeks before graduation and told her parents that she had some unexpected news to share with them at her graduation.

The parents were nervous at such a statement and when her name wasn’t called at the ceremony, they began to fear that she hadn’t graduated. It turned out that she graduated as the best student in her class.

Joel told Chino: “You visited us in the 1980s and told us the story of the bees and about working together. I believed in what you said and because of that, my daughter is where she is today.”

Chino told us: “We don’t make honey just because we love the bees, which of course we do; we are all families working together for a better future. We as humans can learn a lot from the bees.”

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09/01/2013 09:06:46

N A LOT

BEES

We asked Chino to explain about the honey and how members join the co-operative: “It all starts with the application form which goes to the Board. The decision is not made on how many hives a person has, or how much honey they are likely to deliver. We want people who are committed to our way of working and are willing to work with us through the good and the bad.

“Once signed up, members have access to a number of services including training. We also offer access to credit for our farmers. To apply for credit each farmer must present a project supported by a technician who agrees that the plans are possible to the Credit Commission. The loans are usually granted over a two-year period and are paid back in honey. The money is generally used to purchase more land and hives thus to produce more honey.”

In the last 15 years Apicoop has lent around $1m to their farmers, of this money 97% has been paid back. Like Shared Interest the group doesn’t ask for any form of security on the loans. As Chino explained it is “a matter of trust.”

Speaking of the term loan that enabled Apicoop to diversify into blueberry production, Chino said: “Around seven years ago we had a conversation with one of our buyers, Traidcraft, about the possible effects that climate change could have on our honey production. Our producers are spread across Chile so this mitigates some of the risk, but we were worried that we might have all of our eggs in one basket should anything happen.

“We decided to try blueberries and now have a field and a processing plant. We package and store the fruit before it is shipped to Europe.”

Chino hopes that the blueberries will be successful enough that the group will be able to pay off its loans, become more independent and eventually generate it’s own working capital; he calls the project the “blueberry bank.”

When asked about the role of Shared Interest in Apicoop’s development, Chino said: “It is simple. If we didn’t have access to Shared Interest’s finance we wouldn’t be here now talking about blueberries.”

He continued: “We really want Shared Interest members to understand how much impact their investment has. Although they can’t see or touch our blueberry field, it has been worth it and will continue to benefit future generations.”

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09/01/2013 09:06:51

Overseas

Team update

Since opening our first overseas office in 2005, our in-country presence has enabled us to lend directly to more producers than ever before. As this year started, more than 70 producer groups had accounts with us and last year We increased our direct payments to producer groups by almost 20%.

Our overseas team are always keen to share news of their latest activity:

Kenya

Our Kenya office is the most established of our overseas network. Rachel Ngondo has been working with us since we opened the office in 2006. Since then she has been joined by Regional Development Administrator, Kennedy Mwasi and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Duncan Ouma.

Rachel told us: “Over the years we have seen many handcraft producers building a brighter future for themselves and their families thanks to our investors. We are now looking to increase our coffee lending in East Africa and I’m delighted to share that we have recently approved an export credit facility for coffee co-operative Gumutindo.”

Gumutindo is a native word meaning “excellent quality”. The Gumutindo co-operative was founded in 1998 with the aim of improving the income of the smallholder coffee farmers.

Shared Interest has been working with Gumutindo since 2006 when we approved a term loan that enabled the group to refurbish its old factory into offices, a warehouse and a coffee grading facility. The co-operative has grown from exporting 1.5 containers of coffee in 1999 to 56 containers in 2012. The group now boasts over 8,000 members.

To help Gumuntindo manage this growth we have approved an export credit facility. We look forward to bringing you further news on the co-operative in 2013.

Rachel said: “It’s out of experiences like these that I feel proud to be part of the team that is doing a good job. But we still have a lot to do as there are many more producers who need to benefit from fair trade.”

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09/01/2013 09:06:54

Peru

Paul Sablich joined Shared Interest in 2009 when we opened our office in Peru - a place that has more fair trade producers than any other region in the world. Andrea Miguel de Priego joined Paul as Regional Development Administrator the following year.

The team has been working hard to raise awareness of Shared Interest within Latin America and as a result we have seen the greatest increase in direct producer lending in this region; predominantly in Peru.

Paul told us how crucial relationships are to his work: “It’s not just the producers that we forge relationships with, but the buyers who are indispensable in this fair trade world. The companies have every intention of paying back their loans so they want to establish long-term relationships with us.”

Ghana

Our most recent office was opened earlier this year in Accra, Ghana. John Dossou heads up the office which he shares with Fairtrade Africa. This link has proved beneficial and has helped us reach fair trade producers who may not be able to find finance elsewhere.

We hope that our West African presence will enable us to diversify our lending portfolio into products that are specific to the area, including fresh and dried fruit, rice, cotton and cocoa. Did you know that approximately 60% of the world’s cocoa is grown in Ghana and the Ivory Coast? The amount of cocoa sold under fair trade terms from Ghana has quadrupled from 5,000 to 20,000 tons over the past three years. We hope to be able to work with more of these groups in the future.

We are delighted to report that our first piece of lending is underway following the launch of our Ghana office.

The export credit facility for handcraft producer, Havilak will benefit 850 weavers, many of whom are widows or single mothers. Because of a shortage in raw material, they are looking to increase their volumes by opening a production centre in the south where straw is more plentiful.

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09/01/2013 09:06:57

International Year of Quinoa The United Nations has declared 2013 as the International Year of Quinoa (IYQ).

The objective is to focus world attention on the role that quinoa’s biodiversity and nutritional value plays in providing food security and nutrition. Shared Interest currently makes payments on behalf of Andean Naturals. The group buys quinoa from small farms in the mountains of Bolivia and Peru and distributes it throughout North America.

Andean Naturals was set up in 2004 by five Bolivian entrepreneurs based in the US who wanted to help farmers in Bolivia gain access to the North American market. Andean farmers face major difficulties accessing markets that pay fairly for their products. This means that in the past they have created ‘cash crops’ using chemicals and imported seeds instead of the more traditional and environmentally-friendly methods they prefer. As a result, these farmers have been unwillingly forced to degrade their own land.

Andean Naturals has offered a solution by offering reliable and fair market access to small-scale organic farmers. Thanks to consumer demand for this now premium product, and the organic methods involved, Andean Naturals has managed to ensure that Bolivian farmers are paid fairly for this valuable commodity.

The organisation uses a Shared Interest credit facility to offer the 4,000 farmers involved pre-harvest payments. This means that they can receive payment for their produce before the quinoa is sold - quite often as a ‘super food’ to health conscious consumers in North America and Europe.

Shared Interest also works with GoGo Quinoa. We will bring you further updates on this group in the next issue of QR.

Interest on members’ accounts The December Board meeting saw the Shared Interest accounts signed off for the year.

We are delighted to announce that the results include a provision to pay 0.5% interest to members who were registered with the Society as at 30 September 2012. This will be calculated based on month-end balances throughout the entire 2011-12 year.

Whilst the Society’s official interest rate to members was 0% throughout the financial year, the results have been boosted by a one-off windfall VAT claim which was received following the successful registration of the Society for VAT at the beginning of October 2011.

The Directors felt that it was appropriate to reward members who have retained their investment with the Society through recent tough financial times.

This year’s interest rate is also currently set at 0.5% and the decision to pay this will be made when the 2012-13 accounts are signed in late 2013. Please note that following the presentation of the accounts in March, further information will be sent to members about how and when the 0.5% interest will be distributed.

Contact us Shared Interest 2 Cathedral Square Groat Market Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1EH 0191 233 9102 membership@shared-interest.com

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Upcoming events Our Daily Bread Global Awareness Conference 2013

Broadmead Baptist Church, Union Street, Bristol Saturday 26 January, 9.30am-4pm

Diocese of London Fairtrade Conference

St Mary le Bow Church, Cheapside, London Saturday 26 January, 12 noon – 4pm

Fairtrade Fortnight

Various locations, visit www.fairtrade.org.uk for more info 25 February – 10 March

African Initiatives

Broadmead Baptist Church, Union Street, Bristol Saturday 9 March, 9.30am – 4pm

Shared Interest AGM

Assembly Rooms, Fenkle Street, Newcastle upon Tyne Friday 15 March, 10.15am-4pm

Quarterly Return is the newsletter of Shared Interest.

Shared Interest Society Ltd is a fair trade lending organisation which is a member of Co-operatives UK. It uses the pooled investments of its members in the UK to effect real and lasting improvements to people’s lives in the developing world.

QR is printed on paper from sustainable, well managed sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Shared Interest Society Ltd is registered with the Registrar of Friendly Societies, number 27093R. The Directors decide on what the interest amount will be, if any, after the end of the financial year when financial results for the past year are known.

From 1 October 2012 the interest rate has been 0.5%.

09/01/2013 09:07:00