Fairtrade on the road

Fairtrade on the Road follows Fairtrade employees, producers and others as they crisscross the globe working to build relationships, fairer trade terms, and sustainable livelihoods. Fairtrade International is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization...

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Learning to lead in Guatemala

Some of the finest coffees in Guatemala are grown along the slopes of the remote Cuchumatanes mountains. © Sean Hawkey

‘Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade’ in its seventh edition is the latest report featuring data on Fairtrade’s impact. This story is featured on page 33 of the report. Find out more 

Miriam Chales de Martinez is the Assistant Manager of the Todo Santerita coffee cooperative in Huehuetenango—a far-flung, mountainous region in the northwest corner of Guatemala near its border with Mexico.

Miriam began working with the cooperative in 2003, rising to the role of Assistant Manager by 2005, a post she still holds. “I chose this career because it’s something I like. I like the way cooperatives work and I like to support my community,” she says.

To help women such as Miriam develop their talent in the sector, University Rafael Landivar in Huehuetenango has partnered with Fairtrade and Irish Aid to offer a scholarship in the management of cooperatives and associations, with support from the Coordinadora Guatemalteca de Organizaciones de Comercio Justo (CGCJ). The initiative has enabled Miriam to further her education while still working at the head of her organization.

“The cooperative continues to grow and improve our quality and now we don’t just produce conventional coffee, but Fairtrade certified coffee,” Miriam says. Miriam will graduate from the programme in 2016 alongside 23 other students from 11 Fairtrade certified small farmer organizations. Read the full story

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Fairtrade sugar supporting livelihoods in Jamaica

Alexia Ludford, farmer and Fair Trade Project Manager Worthy Park CFA. © O’Brien Brown

‘Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade’ in its seventh edition is the latest report featuring data on Fairtrade’s impact. This story is featured on page 115 of the report. Find out more 

Sometimes a simple approach to business works best. ‘It does not matter where the people are; have the people’s interest at heart and everything else will fall in line,’ says Paulette Richards, a sugar cane farmer and secretary of the Trelawney and St James Cane Growers Association in Jamaica. Paulette says sugar is the backbone of the economy in a country where eight percent of the population earn their living directly or indirectly from the crop.

‘If we didn’t have the sugar industry... children would not be able to go to school effectively, shops would close, the bakery would close; it would affect every individual.’

The reform of the European Union sugar market is putting livelihoods in developing countries at risk. Fairtrade is calling for a new approach that puts farmers such as Paulette first. Read the full story

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Building a Learning Organization

Fairtrade aims to enable farmers and workers to move up the value chain, build stronger businesses and fairer workplaces, and access new markets. To evaluate our progress towards this, we use Fairtrade’s Theory of Change  to analyse, learn and improve our work.

We are strengthening our monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) system. In 2015, we launched a digital data collection tool to generate better quality data from producers across a wider range of indicators. This producer data enables businesses to understand the impact of their Fairtrade commitment. MEL tools also allow analysis of market trends for different products and provide guidance on mitigating risks faced by Fairtrade producers.

As part of our learning process, we use findings from commissioned and external research to identify challenging areas and improve our impact. Fairtrade was ranked in the top 2 of 48 NGOs in BOND’s 2015 NGO Transparency Review for systematically publishing all evaluations.

Find out how we’re building Fairtrade as a learning organization.

‘Driving Sales, Deepening Impact’ is the latest annual report featuring Fairtrade’s work in 2015-2016. To view the full report, click here.

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Climate adaptation puts tea in the shade

Victor Biwot, Operations Manager at Sireet Outgrowers Empowerment Project Company, an association of tea growers in Kenya. © Zoe Stephenson / Fairtrade International

‘Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade’ in its seventh edition is the latest report featuring data on Fairtrade’s impact. This story is featured on page 105 of the report. Find out more 

Rural and farming communities are among the most deeply affected by climate change, although they have done the least to contribute to it. Sireet Outgrowers Empowerment Project Company Ltd is an association of small-scale tea growers located in six production zones spread across the vast Nandi Hills region of Rift Valley Province. Based in remote areas of Kenya, the favourable climate has historically allowed Sireet OEP to harvest tea year-round. But for how much longer? Sireet OEP Operations Manager Victor Biwot says climate change is affecting productivity. ‘Farmers can no longer predict the best time to prepare their farms or start planting. In previous years it used to work like clockwork, but now you just can’t tell.’

Fairtrade certified since 2006, Sireet OEP has recently started reforestation projects to try to combat the onset of climate change. ‘We are raising trees in our nurseries for farmers to inter-plant with their tea crops,’ says Victor. ‘The trees provide shade to the tea, and protect it from hail and frost, helping to reduce the effects of climate change.’ Read the full Sireet story

Read more about Fairtrade’s approach to climate change

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Founder of the first women’s coffee cooperative in Asia

The Indonesian coffee-producing cooperative Koperasi Kopi Wanita Gayo  was founded in 2014 and Fairtrade certified just a year later. What makes it unique is that all of its members are women farmers.

Under the leadership of Rizkani Ahmad, 470 women came together to form this cooperative. Many of them were previously members of other organizations. In this rural community, women often do not dare to speak at meetings, much less express a different opinion from that of their spouses. So Rizkani Ahmad wanted to create an exclusively female organization, so that women could actively participate in the life and decisions of the organization.

"The biggest change that Fairtrade has brought me is confidence in myself,” said Rizkani. “Through my work with the cooperative, I feel I can succeed. I feel closer to the other women in my community and I can be a spokesperson for them. We may not have many qualifications, but we have big dreams for our cooperative."

It has not been an easy path. The biggest challenge Rizkani faced was land ownership. In order to become a member of the coorperative you must be a landowner. However, only 30 percent of the women farmers owned a plot of land, having inherited it from their parents. For the others, their husbands had to be convinced to hand over part of their property and land management to their wives. The women’s determination finally paid off and the cooperative was born.

Since the introduction of the coffee to the region, men and women have always worked together, even if the land belonged to men. However, women were not participating in decisions and did not receive training to improve agricultural techniques or to learn how to roast coffee. Through the establishment of the organization they can now use the Fairtrade Premium to participate in training.

Read more about Koperasi Kopi Wanita Gayo.

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Vanilla farmers bring first Fairtrade certification to Tonga

Vanilla Growers Association member, Pasepa Lolohea, holding a bunch of cured vanilla beans. © Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand

‘Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade’ in its seventh edition is the latest report featuring data on Fairtrade’s impact. This story is featured on page 149 of the report. Find out more 

A small dot in the South Pacific witnessed a big Fairtrade celebration in 2015, when the Vanilla Growers Association of Vava’u (VGA) became the first farmer association in the archipelago state of Tonga to achieve certification.

Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand (Fairtrade ANZ) began working with VGA soon after the association was formed in 2013. Through its Producer Development Fund, Fairtrade ANZ invested in equipment to improve the efficiency and productivity of VGA’s farmers. A library of tools now offers farmers the use of wheelbarrows, brush cutters, ladders and other equipment necessary to maintain their vanilla gardens. They have also set up a model curing facility to add value to and improve the quality of VGA’s vanilla.

With the support of its partner Queen Fine Foods, VGA was aiming to sell between three and five metric tonnes of Fairtrade and organic certified vanilla in 2015. This would bring up to US$350,000 in income to 168 vanilla growing members and up to US$33,000 in Fairtrade Premium to the association, to be used for business and community development activities.

‘With the support of Queen Fine Foods and Fairtrade, growers are returning to their vanilla plantations and gradually restoring them to full production,’ says VGA’s President Sione Lolohea. Read the full story

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Power in Partnership

Fairtrade works within the market to change the market. Every farmer and worker deserves the chance of a better future. By choosing Fairtrade products consumers enable these producers to take control of their lives. The powerful connection between producers and consumers remains a fundamental pillar of Fairtrade.

Originating in the UK 16 years ago, the international Fair Trade Town movement now numbers more than 1,800 Fair Trade Towns across 28 countries. This grassroots initiative – driven by supporters campaigning for trade justice – is unique to Fairtrade. Now communities in developing markets are increasingly taking up the challenge to make change happen.

For example, in 2015 a Fair Trade Towns and Villages campaign was launched in Latin America. Campaigners in India are working towards their first Fair Trade towns – Pondicherry and Auroville. In 2015, activist Pushpanath Krishnamurthy embarked on a 450km walk from Pondicherry to Ooty via Auroville to raise awareness and support for fair trade in the country. Ahead of the 2016 Fair Trade Towns conference, nine Lebanese villages achieved Fair Trade Town status. The 2016 conference in Baskinta, Lebanon was the first to be held in a developing nation.

Read more about the Power in Partnerships.

‘Driving Sales, Deepening Impact’ is the latest annual report featuring Fairtrade’s work in 2015-2016. To view the full report, click here.

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Silk Road pomegranate growers turn to Fairtrade

Pomegranate farmer Pardaali Holov is the Fairtrade coordinator at Dustkul Bogi. This Fairtrade certified producer organization grows pomegranates and other fruits and nuts in Uzbekistan. © Lucy Russell / Fairtrade Finland

‘Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade’ in its seventh edition is the latest report featuring data on Fairtrade’s impact. This story is featured on page 148 of the report. Find out more

Pardaali Holov is a pomegranate farmer. So were his parents and his grandparents, and so are most of the people he knows. The mountainous area around his home village of Varganza in Uzbekistan is famous for this juicy red fruit, which represents life and fertility in Uzbek culture. But despite the rich symbolism of growing pomegranates along the ancient trading routes of the Silk Road, the farmers here face a huge challenge: they need consistent access to water for irrigation. Although they have a well in their community, water is scarce because they need electricity to pump enough of it up from a depth of 70 to 100 metres below ground level.

Improving the electricity supply and installing such a pump was expensive and could not be covered by their first Fairtrade Premium earnings. So Pardaali and the members of his Dustkul Bogi cooperative came up with an idea. They decided to construct a teahouse—the cultural and social centre of any typical Uzbek village.

‘This is all part of our big plan. Once other farmers see our finished teahouse, they will all want to join Fairtrade and then with a larger group we will work together to receive a higher Fairtrade Premium, and then we will install the water pump,’ says Pardaali. Read the full story

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Photo: TransFair e.V./Frank Nürnberger

Bijumon Kurian Wins Fairtrade Award for ‘Biggest Fairtrade Fan‘

Bijumon Kurian continuously pushes farmers and workers across Asia to enhance their knowledge about Fairtrade Standards.

As president of Manarcadu Social Services Society in the Indian state of Kerala, Bijumon has worked tirelessly to empower women and motivate young people for farming, and enhance the knowledge transfer among the 1600 small-scale farmers supported by the cooperative. He has also initiated training and knowledge exchange programmes for tea garden workers. In his role as board member of the Fairtrade Network of Asia and Pacific Producers (NAPP), Bijumon has focussed on enhancing the visibility of Asian producers in global markets by organizing their participation in a number of trade fairs and business trips.

He has been representing small producers as their delegate in the NAPP general assembly for the past three years, making sure their voice is heard in regional decision-making. Read more about Bijumon.

View a full list of winners of the 2016 Fairtrade International Awards.

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Speculating to accumulate in Côte d’Ivoire

A producer working at ECOOKIM. ECOOKIM is a union of seven primary co-operatives located in rural communities across four regions of Côte d’Ivoire. © Nabil Zorkot / Fairtrade Germany

‘Monitoring the Scope and Benefits of Fairtrade’ in its seventh edition is the latest report featuring data on Fairtrade’s impact. This story is featured on page 93 of the report. Find out more

Investing in business projects is proving popular with cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire. The ECOOKIM cooperative made its first Fairtrade sales in 2011 and has recently invested its Fairtrade Premium in building warehouses for storing cocoa, establishing training schemes for new farming techniques, and improving fermentation practices. The organization is also investing in inputs, fertilizers, new plants and plant nurseries, while an agricultural technician has been hired to advise the farmers and train leaders in their community.

These changes have led to quality improvement and increased production from 250kg per hectare to up to 650kg. This in turn has led to greater sales, increased income and more hope for the future.

‘It’s so positive when someone approaches me and says, “I’ve boosted my yield and volume”, ‘says Aminata Bamba, the cooperative’s Head of Sustainability. ‘Little by little we see a difference in the quality of life here. A woman said to me recently, “Now I have a bed.” Before this she slept on a woven mat.’ Read the full story

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Fostering Sustainable Growth

Fairtrade is an active game changer for farmers, producers and workers, enabling them to move up the value chain, organize, build stronger businesses and fairer workplaces, and gain access to new markets and fairer finance.

Strong, viable small producer organizations (SPOs) are essential to ensure sustainable futures for farmers, food security and an end to poverty, as foreseen in Goal 2 of the UN’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

To improve our support for SPOs, we are conducting research to understand what factors contribute to or obstruct their development. The findings, together with our experience supporting producers, will inform guidance, tools, and training for SPOs. This will enable them to maximize their benefits from Fairtrade through improved planning, strategic use of the Fairtrade Premium, and better access to finance.

Fairtrade’s work on living wages aims to push up wage levels in places where minimum wages are below what workers require for a decent standard of living. We have already set living wage benchmarks in five countries with more in the pipeline in 2016.

Read more about Fairtrade’s approach to foster sustainable growth.

‘Driving Sales, Deepening Impact’ is the latest annual report featuring Fairtrade’s work in 2015-2016. To view the full report, click here.

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UNTEA gets honoured with the Fairtrade Award ‘Premium Committee of the Year’

United Nilgiri Tea Estates Company Limited was one of the first organizations in India to be Fairtrade certified. It operates four tea estates in the picturesque Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu in the south of the country, producing high quality teas at altitudes of over 2000 metres.

The Nilgiri Premium Committee has a twin emphasis on education and health. In education, the Premium has helped to fund the building of eight classrooms and one audio visual room with 900 students now benefiting from 25 new computers; while two school buses and hostels help those children who live further away to attend classes.

In its other core area, a community health centre has already received around 12,000 patients and has given all workers, their spouses and children the option of immunization against Hepatitis B. Crèches and an orphanage have been opened and at the other end of the life scale, there is now a pension scheme.

View a full list of winners of the 2016 Fairtrade International Awards.

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1 October is International Coffee Day - A great reason to introduce you to some of the people who make your daily Fairtrade caffeine kick possible! Volunteer George Middleton went on a trip to Minas Gerais, the coffee-growing heart of Brazil.

Meet Alvaro

Alvaro’s coffee farm has been in his family for four generations. Alvaro is a member of ASCARIVE, a Fairtrade cooperative in Mantaqueria, a microregion of Minas Gerais. Here you’ll find ideal conditions for producing high quality coffee – and his coffee sure tastes good. Plus, this is the amazing view from the highest point of his land:

Brazil is the one of few countries in the world that both supplies and demands Fairtrade products. Rio de Janeiro recently became the largest city in Latin America to achieve Fair Trade Town status, in recognition of its work to promote and Fairtrade products in shops and cafes across the capital. The quality of the coffee, the personal stories of the farmers, and the impact Fairtrade is having make me believe Fairtrade can play a growing role in supporting Brazil to turn inequality on itself.

Find out more about Fairtrade in Brazil  

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1 October is International Coffee Day - A great reason to introduce you to some of the people who make your daily Fairtrade caffeine kick possible! Volunteer George Middleton went on a trip to Minas Gerais, the coffee-growing heart of Brazil.

Meet Sebastiao

Sebastiao works on his coffee farm with his wife and ten grown up children (five sons and five daughters). He is a member the Fairtrade certified cooperative Cooperativa Mista Agropecuária de Paraguaçu (COOMAP)  located in the state of Minas Gerais. Without the Fairtrade Premium, the family farm wouldn’t have made it this far. Projects funded through the Premium have also had a positive effect on the whole community. 

Here are just a few examples:

Education projects, such as English and computer classes, or scholarships for young people to study courses coffee production

Training for women to get involved in coffee farming, and initiatives to promote gender equality

Protecting local water sources and improving water quality

Brazil is the second largest producer of Fairtrade certified coffee and the largest producer of coffee globally. In 2013-2014, 25 Fairtrade producer organizations in Brazil produced 87,600 metric tonnes of coffee. 

Learn more about Fairtrade coffee 

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Women coffee farmers build economic independence

Fabiola Tombe is President of the Association of Women Coffee Producers of Cauca (AMUCC) in Colombia.

This association was founded in 2007 by a group of women coffee producers. Their aspiration was to enable women to grow their businesses and improve their family income by bringing housewives and heads of the household to work together on their coffee farms.

While at first many men objected to the idea that their wives could become independent producers, the women’s sheer determination put an end to these objections.

And with the support of the Fairtrade certified cooperative CAFICAUCA, AMUCC became Fairtrade certified in 2010.

"It is important that women never stop promoting the processes that bring dignity to women and changes within their communities. The major changes are not made in large cities, with much debate. The big changes are born in communities, with ordinary people. For this reason, it is vital that leaders continue to work for and within their communities" explains Fabiola.

In a region hit hard by the aftereffects of armed conflict, forced displacement of communities, migration of men to cities and a lack of job opportunities, the participation of women in coffee cultivation has grown.

"We are single, widowed, displaced or married women. Even if men are indispensable, we want to contribute to the economy of our families. We have two jobs: the home and our farms."

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Photo: TransFair e.V./Frank Nürnberger

Zaytoun CIC Wins Fairtrade Award for ‘Global Trader of the Year‘

Zaytoun CIC began working with small-scale cooperatives in the Palestinian Territories in 2004 to help olive oil producers access markets and overcome restrictions resulting from the ongoing conflict in the region. Initially funded by hundreds of customers who put up payment in advance of receiving their oil, Zaytoun quickly established itself as a UK social enterprise and delivered the world's first Fairtrade certified olive oil in 2009.

The Zaytoun product range now extends to other foodstuffs from the West Bank and Gaza including almonds, dates and maftoul - large hand-rolled cous cous – and the commitment to facilitate an economic independence for Palestinians is ongoing.

Zaytoun has a Palestinian director in the West Bank who encourages farmers to create strong cooperatives to enhance their businesses as well as their communities, and there is a continual drive to find agents who will help to transport the produce through border crossings to the export points.

Zaytoun is working with the Soil Association on gaining organic status for its remaining foodstuffs and has been helping women producers with their green olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Zaytoun also organises olive harvest and tree planting tours to engage UK-based supporters of Fairtrade and help sustain the olive industry in the face of grove destruction. Read more about Zaytoun.

View a full list of winners of the 2016 Fairtrade International Awards.

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Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union Wins Fairtrade Award for ‘Premium Committee of the Year’

The Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union unites 22 groups of farmers across six districts in Gedeo, southern Ethiopia. Yirgacheffe farmers are proud that their organic fertilizers, a wide forest canopy and gentle climate produce a high quality Arabica coffee.

The union and its continually expanding membership have built and maintain schools in their communities, seeing education of the children as the way to a better future. Yirgacheffe has also invested in infrastructure projects: building roads and bridges, improving pathways and installing electricity. Many women in particular say this is “lighting up their lives”.

View a full list of winners of the 2016 Fairtrade International Awards.