Half a million cups of tea and coffee served at Trinity College Dublin every year are to become Fairtrade products, the university has announced.
TCD will now be recognised as a Fairtrade campus after it agreed to provide only Fairtrade certified coffee and tea at all its food outlets, including the Buttery restaurant.
The coffee and tea will be supplied from Sacramento, California by the Java City Coffee Company, a subsidiary of the Irish company Bewley's Ltd.
The move coincides with the recent announcement of the Fairtrade Development Initiative by Dublin City Council, which aims to achieve the internationally recognised Fairtrade status for the capital.
Director of Fairtrade Mark Ireland Peter Gaynor said: "This is an important initiative by one of Ireland's most renowned educational and research institutions. It will further help to raise consciousness among consumers of the necessity to pay producers a fair price for their produce."
The international organisation Fairtrade helps producers to achieve fair prices for their food and commodities through a certification system.