Oct 2006
Consumers care about themselves
too
Mike Knowles
Fairtrade bananas quite clearly have something that the sector’s multinational players do not: the unquestioned support and trust of consumers. With sales of Fairtrade fruit in Europe now worth more than €60m, it is clear that people believe it to be one of the most effective ways of ensuring the money they spend is benefiting not just the corporate executives and investors of this world, but also the people who actually produce the fruit.
Our interview with one of the Fairtrade movement’s founders, Nico Roozen, on p76-78 of this month’s magazine reveals a great deal about how the big companies are looking to position themselves as more than just bulk banana shippers. Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole and Fyffes are all attempting to improve their levels of corporate and social responsibility, says Mr Roozen, and this is thanks in no small part to the success of Fairtrade over the past decade, which has increased consumers’ concern about where and how the fruit and vegetables they eat are produced.
Our October issue also includes Trade South Africa, starting on p39, Eurofruit Magazine’s most in-depth look ever at what is one of the Southern Hemisphere’s leading suppliers of fresh produce. Here too, there is evidence of greater focus on responsible production. And while the success of Fairtrade fruit reflects this greater need among consumers for a clear conscience about the health of the planet, the fact that sales of organic fresh produce from South Africa and elsewhere have rocketed over the last few years suggests they are also increasingly concerned about their own health.
However, there are shadows lurking behind both the Fairtrade and organic industries. As our comment piece on p169 observes, there is a danger that systems of certification and control may be failing in the rush to supply Fairtrade-branded products. Meanwhile, Natural Selection Foods, the California-based grower at the centre of last month’s outbreak in the US of E.coli linked to conventionally produced spinach, is also the country’s largest grower and shipper of certified organic produce. The consequences for this fastgrowing sector, should organic spinach be implicated, would almost certainly be huge, because although consumers care about protecting the environment, they also care a great deal about protecting themselves.
Fairtrade bananas quite clearly have something that the sector’s multinational players do not: the unquestioned support and trust of consumers. With sales of Fairtrade fruit in Europe now worth more than €60m, it is clear that people believe it to be one of the most effective ways of ensuring the money they spend is benefiting not just the corporate executives and investors of this world, but also the people who actually produce the fruit.
Our interview with one of the Fairtrade movement’s founders, Nico Roozen, on p76-78 of this month’s magazine reveals a great deal about how the big companies are looking to position themselves as more than just bulk banana shippers. Chiquita, Del Monte, Dole and Fyffes are all attempting to improve their levels of corporate and social responsibility, says Mr Roozen, and this is thanks in no small part to the success of Fairtrade over the past decade, which has increased consumers’ concern about where and how the fruit and vegetables they eat are produced.
Our October issue also includes Trade South Africa, starting on p39, Eurofruit Magazine’s most in-depth look ever at what is one of the Southern Hemisphere’s leading suppliers of fresh produce. Here too, there is evidence of greater focus on responsible production. And while the success of Fairtrade fruit reflects this greater need among consumers for a clear conscience about the health of the planet, the fact that sales of organic fresh produce from South Africa and elsewhere have rocketed over the last few years suggests they are also increasingly concerned about their own health.
However, there are shadows lurking behind both the Fairtrade and organic industries. As our comment piece on p169 observes, there is a danger that systems of certification and control may be failing in the rush to supply Fairtrade-branded products. Meanwhile, Natural Selection Foods, the California-based grower at the centre of last month’s outbreak in the US of E.coli linked to conventionally produced spinach, is also the country’s largest grower and shipper of certified organic produce. The consequences for this fastgrowing sector, should organic spinach be implicated, would almost certainly be huge, because although consumers care about protecting the environment, they also care a great deal about protecting themselves.
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Fairtrade certifiers must redouble
their efforts
Chris White
Fairtrade products have come more sharply into the spotlight in recent weeks, and this time for all the wrong reasons. An investigation by the Financial Times has revealed that labourers involved in the production of Fairtrade coffee in Peru have been paid less than the legal minimum wage.
Quoting industry sources, the financial daily newspaper also reports that non-certified coffee has been marked and exported as Fairtrade while certified coffee has been illegally planted in areas of protected rainforest. “This casts doubt on the certification process used by Fairtrade and similar marks that require producers to pay the minimum wage,” reports the FT’s Peru corrrespondent. “It also raises questions about the assurances certifiers give about how premium-priced fair trade coffee is produced.”
Coffee was among the first major food products to carry the Fairtrade mark, attracting at first a small clientele of socially-concerned consumers. Since then, Fairtrade coffee and, it has to be said, the philosophy that drinking a cup of it represents, has gone mainstream, so much so that even Nestlé has launched its own line of fairly-traded coffee.
Although, as has been suggested, much of the interest in Fairtrade used to be limited to a specific and comparatively small group of socially and ecologically aware shoppers, its arrival into the mainstream is not only a result of the wider acceptance of these ideas but also, and probably most importantly, because everyone involved in the Fairtrade supply chain sees there is good money in it too.
Fairtrade gained ground in the 1990s as a means of helping bring higher returns to food producers, many of whom got poor returns year after year as money was swallowed up by the rest of the supply chain and returned only meagre amounts to the producers themselves. In the fruit sector it is Fairtrade bananas that have made the biggest splash, not least because they’re a commodity product available year-round and from numerous sources.
Indeed, in certain markets such as the UK, some major food retailers have become so interested in Fairtrade bananas that they’re keen to market ever more volumes of the product. A quick look around a handful of major stores in central London last month demonstrated the extent to which, at least in these shops, Fairtrade bananas now dominate the offer. It seems they’re being sold much more effectively than conventional fruit, which was offered loose or as a ‘value’ product; in fact, it was the famous banana that bears the blue label that was selling at the lowest price on that day!
Fairtrade bananas have taken the UK market by storm in the last few years, so much so that retailers are now demanding sometimes exponential increases in volumes from one year to the next. And even if it has something to do with the demand for Fairtrade coming from the shopper, it is fair to assume that food retailers also see good money and good margins to be made from them.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong in any of this, especially if it helps to reinvigorate the sector and drive sales. But, much like the FT’s coffee story in Peru, it begs the question whether, in the rush to source new supplies, there is not a danger that the systems of certification and control start to come unstuck.
If anything, the recent problems that the FT has reported have come at just the right time. It obliges those who certify in this rapidly growing part of the business to redouble their effforts to ensure that only the produce that is certified has the right to call itself Fairtrade.
Fairtrade products have come more sharply into the spotlight in recent weeks, and this time for all the wrong reasons. An investigation by the Financial Times has revealed that labourers involved in the production of Fairtrade coffee in Peru have been paid less than the legal minimum wage.
Quoting industry sources, the financial daily newspaper also reports that non-certified coffee has been marked and exported as Fairtrade while certified coffee has been illegally planted in areas of protected rainforest. “This casts doubt on the certification process used by Fairtrade and similar marks that require producers to pay the minimum wage,” reports the FT’s Peru corrrespondent. “It also raises questions about the assurances certifiers give about how premium-priced fair trade coffee is produced.”
Coffee was among the first major food products to carry the Fairtrade mark, attracting at first a small clientele of socially-concerned consumers. Since then, Fairtrade coffee and, it has to be said, the philosophy that drinking a cup of it represents, has gone mainstream, so much so that even Nestlé has launched its own line of fairly-traded coffee.
Although, as has been suggested, much of the interest in Fairtrade used to be limited to a specific and comparatively small group of socially and ecologically aware shoppers, its arrival into the mainstream is not only a result of the wider acceptance of these ideas but also, and probably most importantly, because everyone involved in the Fairtrade supply chain sees there is good money in it too.
Fairtrade gained ground in the 1990s as a means of helping bring higher returns to food producers, many of whom got poor returns year after year as money was swallowed up by the rest of the supply chain and returned only meagre amounts to the producers themselves. In the fruit sector it is Fairtrade bananas that have made the biggest splash, not least because they’re a commodity product available year-round and from numerous sources.
Indeed, in certain markets such as the UK, some major food retailers have become so interested in Fairtrade bananas that they’re keen to market ever more volumes of the product. A quick look around a handful of major stores in central London last month demonstrated the extent to which, at least in these shops, Fairtrade bananas now dominate the offer. It seems they’re being sold much more effectively than conventional fruit, which was offered loose or as a ‘value’ product; in fact, it was the famous banana that bears the blue label that was selling at the lowest price on that day!
Fairtrade bananas have taken the UK market by storm in the last few years, so much so that retailers are now demanding sometimes exponential increases in volumes from one year to the next. And even if it has something to do with the demand for Fairtrade coming from the shopper, it is fair to assume that food retailers also see good money and good margins to be made from them.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong in any of this, especially if it helps to reinvigorate the sector and drive sales. But, much like the FT’s coffee story in Peru, it begs the question whether, in the rush to source new supplies, there is not a danger that the systems of certification and control start to come unstuck.
If anything, the recent problems that the FT has reported have come at just the right time. It obliges those who certify in this rapidly growing part of the business to redouble their effforts to ensure that only the produce that is certified has the right to call itself Fairtrade.
Basket Case: eco-friendly
retailing
Supermarkets have never sprung to mind as particularly green, environmentally-friendly establishments – after all, that’s what organic stores and health food shops are for – but it seems that the UK’s major retailers are now making a concerted effort to redress the balance and quieten some of their harshest ecowarrior critics.
Only last month, market leader Tesco announced its intention to open six regional buying offices in the UK as part of its local sourcing campaign, which in itself was an answer to the recent storm around food miles.The retailer has also launched a new rail freight service in order to cut down on lorry usage.
Carrier bags are not immune to this eco-friendly makeover. Our local branch, right next to the Eurofruit Magazine office, has suddently started giving away smaller carrier bags – fine for a sandwich and bottle of coke, not so good for a week’s worth of fruit and vegetables.
Of course, Tesco is not the only retailer taking steps to halt environmental damage. Waitrose is staunchly proud of its local sourcing project, and Sainsbury’s has introduced compostable packaging for 500 of its own-brand products.
But ultimately, how far can a supermarket really go in saving the environment? Keeping prices consumer-friendly does not go hand in hand with a radical ecological policy, and let’s face it, if supermarket prices become comparable to those of smaller food stores, customers will react with their wallets, not their consciences.