FAIRTRADE Fortnight will be celebrated in Swindon next week with the arrival of an ambassador from distant shores whose life has been transformed by Fairtrade.

Fairtrade Wiltshire will welcome Patrick Kaberia Muthaura from the Michimikuru Tea Company, Kenya, next week before whisking him around the county to tell everyone why it is so important that people buy Fairtrade.

Patrick, 45, who is married with three children, has been a tea and coffee farmer for 24 years. The Michimikuru tea estate - which became Fairtrade certified in 2007 - is in the Nyambene hills of eastern Kenya. The estate's tea is sold in the United Kingdom by Cafedirect.

The Fairtrade Fortnight 2017 campaign aims to inspire people to hold a Fairtrade Break and shine a light on the struggles farmers face to feed themselves and their families.

Despite working hard every day to grow the food many of us have for our daily breaks and take for granted – coffee, tea, bananas and cocoa – millions of farmers don’t earn enough to know where their next meal is coming from.

Amazingly 500 million small-scale farmers produce 80 per cent of the world’s food. Out of these, 400 million smallholder farmers are undernourished.

Patrick said: “Fairtrade has brought Michimikuru out of the traditional working set up.

"With Fairtrade standards the environment matters, what you do, how you treat animals and how people treat each other.”

Patrick will arrive in Wiltshire and have his first event in Swindon on Thursday, March 2, before heading off on a tour of Wiltshire, giving talks in Marlborough and Trowbridge.

Peter Barnett, of Wiltshire Fairtrade, said: “Fairtrade means many producers and workers across the world are able to do what we take for granted – put enough food on the table for themselves and the people they care about, all year round.

“We have been campaigning for Fairtrade for many years through Wiltshire’s many campaigning groups and have learnt what difference it makes for the world’s most vulnerable communities by making farming and production viable in generating vital economic benefits.”

For more information about Fairtrade Fortnight, and how to get involved in your local area, visit www.fairtradesouthwest.org.uk/wiltshire-fairtrade.aspx