News Archive

UWA Business School
The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team at The University of Western Australia has partnered with Oxfam Australia and the WA Fair Trade Collective to establish the first Fair Trade Pop Up Shop in Australia.

The Fair Trade Pop Up Shop will open its doors on 5 May, and will run throughout Fair Trade Fortnight 2012 until 20 May. Located in Carillon City Arcade in the Perth CBD, the shop will stock products ranging from coffee and chocolate to clothes and hand crafted jewellery provided by local Fair Trade retailers. The store is opening just in time to find the perfect Mother's Day gift with a story.

The Fair Trade Pop Up Shop project aims to raise awareness among young professionals and the wider community to build sustainable mainstream demand for high quality, affordable and socially responsible Fair Trade products.

‘The Fair Trade Pop Up Shop is a really innovative way of addressing multiple needs in the community,' said Shannon Ziegelaar, Project Co-ordinator, SIFE UWA.

‘At the core of the pop-up is selling and raising awareness about Fair Trade products which is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.

‘However, as is the aim of all SIFE UWA projects, the flow-on benefits are bigger than this. Setting up a social enterprise is a fantastic learning opportunity for us, the university students managing the project. Student involvement ranges from recent high school graduates to masters students across a range of disciplines.

‘Secondly, the opportunity for people from different sectors of the community to work together volunteering in the store, undergoing education and gaining hands on experience in retail and Fair Trade will be valuable for the volunteers, especially if they choose to capitalise on the experience in the future.'

Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi welcomed the new initiative. ‘The City welcomes the work SIFE UWA and the WA Fair Trade Collective are doing by bringing their Fair Trade Pop-Up Shop into our city. I encourage people to visit this shop at Carillon City and purchase a gift from a range of high quality and socially responsible products,' she said.

Fair Trade is a system that seeks greater equity in international trade.  It aims to achieve better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.

SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) UWA is an international, student-run non-for-profit organisation based at the UWA Business School which aims to create social, environmental and economic change through the positive power of business.

Oxfam Australia is an international development organisation which seeks to find lasting solutions to poverty and social injustice around the world.

Find the Fair Trade Pop Up Shop at H15 Store, Hay Street level of the Carillon City Arcade in the Perth CBD from 5-20 May, or for more information contact Shannon Ziegelaar, Project Co-ordinator, SIFE UWA.

Media references

Catherine Vogel (UWA Business School)    (+61 8) 6488 7340
Verity Chia (UWA Business School)     (+61 8) 6488 1346
Shannon Ziegelaar (SIFE UWA)     (+ 61 4) 22 117 327