The districts of
Anuradhapura and Monaragala took the lead in this event. There was an
assortment of items such as local varieties of rice, sweetmeats, vegetables,
yams, fruits and so forth. Three member organizations of WASJ from Negombo also
exposed dried fish, goat milk products, rice, sweetmeats etc.
There were inquiries
from the participants in the previous years as well. They exposed ready made
garments, household items like table clothes, pillow cases, tea, etc.
Altogether there were 20 stalls. Savisthri helped the participants by providing
stalls, giving publicity to the activity and assisting the participants in
various ways to enable them to carry out their sales on the one hand and making
consumers knowledgeable about the concept. There were several cutouts and a
leaflet for distribution.
The weather was fine
throughout. Participating individuals and organizations had contributed LKRs
2500/- to the Fair Trade fund maintained by Savisthri.
The objectives were
- -
to
popularize chemical free agricultural products.
- -
to
make consumers and producers directly transact without the involvement of middlemen.
- -
to
introduce fair concept as an alternative to existing market system.