Lorna Young, salesperson; born June 15, 1952, in Dumfries, died July 5, 1996, in Edinburgh

LORNA Young, who has died suddenly at the age of 44, was a leading figure in the ``fair trade'' movement in Britain.

Her skill in promoting and marketing coffee from developing countries was crucial in its commercial success. For the first time a ``fair trade'' product was not operating on the margins of the retail trade but instead was part of the mainstream, a ``brand name'' bought and sold in supermarkets.

Born and educated in Dumfriesshire, Lorna, always an independent spirit, had a variety of jobs before discovering her talent for selling. Her skills were first developed with medical publishers, Churchill-Livingstone and later with Chambers, the dictionary and reference publishers. But in 1989 she found a job that offered her real fulfilment when she joined the Edinburgh-based ``fair-trade'' organisation, Equal Exchange.

Equal Exchange had started in the early 1980s as Campaign Coffee Scotland, a charity relying on volunteers who had returned from work assignments in developing countries. The intention then was to persuade people that long-term improvements in developing countries would come about not primarily through aid but from ``fair trade'' - direct access for producers to markets in developed countries, with the payment of a fair price for their labours as well as long-term marketing support.

Increasingly, however, it became evident that one of the best ways of getting across this message - even on a small scale - was to begin importing products which had been traded on this basis. The change of name to Equal Exchange coincided with the development of a range of products under that label for the health food trade, including honey from Mexican co-operatives and peanut butter and sesame tahini from Nicaragua.

Lorna joined Equal Exchange as discussion got underway about separating its charitable and trading functions. She was a founder member of the workers' co-operative which emerged in 1990 to carry out the latter role under the name of Equal Exchange Trading.

Her background in marketing and sales enabled her to bring a new professionalism to the way that ``fair trade'' products were promoted and perceived by the multiple grocery retailers. This was most clearly seen in her role in promoting Cafedirect, a new ``fair trade'' coffee. Her determination to get it on to the shelves of the major supermarket chains took her from one buyer's office to the next. The Co-op (CWS Retail) was the first to list the product in 1992 but soon others followed. By 1995 it had captured more than a 2% share of the UK ground coffee market.

The most that can be said of anyone who dies is that he or she left the world a better place by their efforts. That tribute can be paid to Lorna Young. Literally thousands of small farmers in Latin America and Africa, most of whom will never have heard her name, can today face the future with greater confidence and hope because of her success in opening up new markets for their coffee.

Her death has come as a great shock to those who knew and worked with her; but the extent of her achievement in a few short years will not soon be forgotten. She is survived by her husband, Iain Black.