Consumers care about themselves
too
20 October 2006 10:13
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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