Over 3,500 young people aged 14 to 16 entered the competition, which asked them to design new print and packaging products to promote Fairtrade in a supermarket. Each entrant also had to provide evidence of their knowledge of Fairtrade and of the print and paper industries.

The competition was organised by Proskills, an organisation that represents the interests of the industries that make up the process and manufacturing sector to government, and industry leaders judged the competition entries at the BPIF offices last week.

Judges included representatives from organisations including Fairtrade, the Royal Opera House, Fuji and Informa.

Mary Buck, sales manager at Informa and one of the judges, said: "It was a great day and really interesting to see how the scheme has evolved. The excellent entries were wonderful examples of thorough research, effort and brilliant teaching."

The winners of each of the categories will be announced at the North Print & Pack event in Harrogate next month. A spokeswoman said prizes for the competition’s winners were still being decided but that they would include things like cameras and printing machines for schools.