YOUNG entrepreneurs have been encouraging shoppers to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ when it comes to Fair Trade.

Padiham Green Primary School has forged links with Uganda and is now selling ground coffee on their behalf after learning about the advantages of Fair Trade for the cocoa bean farmers.

As part of their entrepreneur project the children, aged seven to nine, have also been learning about how much things cost and how to make sales.

Jen Morton, class three teacher at the St Anne’s Street school in Padiham, said: “We have formed links with Uganda and have been learning about the farmers who grow the coffee beans.

“We have also done some work in school about setting up our own enterprise and how the children can make profits.

“The children have done their research and it all ties in with our work on healthy foods and where foods come from.”

The ground coffee, from the Mountains of the Moon, is being sold at school and on the customer service desk at Tesco Padiham. Proceeds are being split between the school and the farmers.

It is also sold in Harrod’s, London.

Pupils at the school invited Siobhan Carter, community champion at Tesco Padiham, to attend their coffee morning before asking the store if it would stock the coffee on its customer services desk.

Siobhan said: "Four of the children have been into store and spoke to customers about the coffee and the importance of fair trade. They were very knowledgeable and we have sold quite a lot.”