The Abergavenny Fairtrade Forum celebrated its tenth anniversary on Saturday with a party at the Park Street Community Centre.

The Forum was established in February 2006 and worked towards gaining Fairtrade Town status which was achieved in 2007.

Led by Katrina and Jeremy Gass, the group went on to firmly establish Abergavenny as part of the soon-to-be-first Fairtrade nation in the world - Wales.

The Community Centre was decked out for the anniversary with eye-catching banners and flags depicting the blue and green Fairtrade logo. There was a colourful Love Zimbabwe stall run as usual by Martha Musonza Holman and David Holman and a children’s workshop stall run by Forum member Julie Long.

And visitors were invited to try some tempting dishes of food made with Fairtrade ingredients.

At the start of the event, the Mayor of Abergavenny, Councillor Chris Woodhouse, spoke about how proud he was that Abergavenny was a Fairtrade town and said the initiative had the full backing of the town council.

Monmouthshire is also recognised as a Fairtrade County and Nick Ramsey AM, praised the efforts of the Abergavenny Fairtrade Forum team, emphasising the amount of work that had been put into maintaining the momentum over the past decade.

Katrina Gass gave a potted history of the group and thanked members of the Forum for their help, as well as other supportive groups including NH Sound Community Radio, represented by Pamela Parry.

Canon Carol Wardman explained the Anglican Church’s role in the Fairtrade movement - and pointed out that the Church in Wales had been established as a Fairtrade Province, the first one in the Anglican Communion.

Nick Ramsey then cut the Fairtrade cake to start the celebrations and announced that he had signed up to become a Forum member!