Shared Interest plans to treble cash in its coffers

Feb 20 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A FINANCE company that helps people trade their way out of poverty has revealed plans to treble the amount of money in its coffers in five years.

Newcastle fair trade finance co-operative Shared Interest has £23m to lend to projects around the world, but increasing demand has fuelled plans to grow funds to £75m by 2012.

Cash invested by its 8,400 members, who own and control the organisation, is loaned to farmers and artisans in Africa and South America to buy tools and equipment to produce fair trade goods that are sold worldwide. Investors are companies, churches and individuals.

Loans are made at a lower rate of interest than that offered by local lenders and rather than putting artisans out of business if they default on their repayments, Shared Interest say it works to resolve the problem.

Paul Sharpe, supporter relations manager, has been appointed to help raise the extra cash and he is confident it can be done within five years.

“There is more demand for the share capital than we have to lend. We are looking to increase corporate investment, work with fair trade cities, with universities, schools and churches.”

Shared Interest is based opposite St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle but has offices in Kenya and Costa Rica and plans to open in Peru this year.

Around 30% of the world’s fair trade sales are made in the UK and goods like Cafe Direct coffee are now appearing as mainstream products on supermarket shelves. Producers of fair trade goods earn a ‘fair trade premium’ which is spent on social projects such as schools and healthcare.

The company, which started as offshoot of Traidcraft in 1990, appointed Patricia Alexander as managing director two years ago to draw up expansion plans and lead their realisation.

Alexander, an accountant by trade who has worked for semiconductor company Saint-Gobain Quartz and electronics firm Marconi, says although people are more aware of the fair trade concept, there is still a lot of work to do.

“We’re actually running out of money now to lend, which is a real shame because we are the only financial organisation which lends 100% into the fair trade sector.

“Although there are social lenders around, there aren’t others than focus exclusively on fair trade like we do. We help people trade their way out of poverty – we’re very much trade not aid.”

The minimum investment is £100 but this can be split between four main signatories. The maximum investment by one account holder is £20,000.