A FAIRTRADE olive oil farmer from Palestine visited Tavistock last Saturday as part of a series of countywide events to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight.

Riziq Abu Nasser attended the fourth annual Tavistock Fairtrade Fair in the town's Parish Centre and gave a presentation about the future production of olive oil in the West Bank.

Riziq visited the county, along with a dried mango producer from West Africa, to talk about how receiving a fair price for his produce has helped his community.

He is part of a co-operative that recently started selling its oil through a Fairtrade-registered olive oil wholesaler importing to the UK.

Riziq's visit was part of a programme of events organised by Devon Development Education (DDE) for Fairtrade Fortnight.

Tavistock achieved Fairtrade Town status in 2006 as part of a Westden project to help alleviate poverty in the developing world.

Geri Laithwaite, co-ordinator for Westden, said: 'What was so good about Riziq's talk was his optimistic presentation. He explained how Fairtrade has helped his community and how people in developing countries benefit from us buying fairtrade.'