Fair trade pioneers at the Anuga Organic Forum

The pioneers of international and also regional fair trade met up in the scope of the Organic Forum at last year's Anuga. Winfried Fuchshofen, Executive Director of the independent Fair Trade seal, FairTSA, presented several of his projects. Primarily, the discussion with those responsible for fair trade at Naturland, the association FairBio and Gepa revolved around the different versions of fair and their purpose.

"A fair development can only take place if one supports the people and they are working for their own interests." This conviction of Winfried Fuchshofen, Executive Director of The Fair Trade Sustainability Alliance New Libanon (FairTSA), which is based in the State of New York (USA), is what stands behind each of the projects he and his team of ten people manage. His lecture at the Organic Forum was entitled, 'What rice, bananas and hibiscus have in common' and he used his presentation to outline the entire spectrum of the respective local problems taking three projects as an example. Ranging from Cambodia, to the Dominican Republic through to Sudan.

In Cambodia, the project involved the introduction of a growing system for rice plants, where these are planted as individual plants - which has huge positive effects regarding water consumption, methane production, yield and seed costs. In the Dominican Republic, the company supported discriminated Haitian farmers among others to obtain a legal residence permit. And it was possible to start supporting growing hibiscus in Sudan even though neither the ownership rights nor the payment were documented when the project began. Fuchshofen's conclusion: "What rice, bananas and hibiscus have in common is the commitment of the farmers, the project employees and the management of the organisations involved.”

For Peter Schaumberger of Gepa mbH particularly the Cambodian rice project demonstrated a key issue of fair trade, combined with development aid. Because through FairTSA a rice mill was also erected locally in Cambodia. For Schaumberger the key question is: "How can we create more added value, i.e. further processing, in the origin countries of the raw materials?" Gepa is addressing this matter.

For instance, in another lecture Schaumberger explained that Gepa has now added three coffees from different countries to its line-up, which are both roasted and packed locally before being shipped to Germany - which is uncommon in the coffee industry to-date.

No less than four fair trade organisations were gathered together on the stage and the host, Bernward Geier, journalist and long-standing former IFOAM President, summed it up in a nutshell: "The presented diversity is wonderful. However, does the power lie in the diversity (referring to the many different Fair Trade seals) or would it not be better to make the theme fair trade more transparent for the consumer?"

Schaumberger endeavoured to differentiate here for different target groups. For the producers it would be more practical to merge as many seals as possible in order to reduce the monitoring and certification efforts and thus also the costs. The consumers would also welcome a simplification in order to be able to classify products into black and white, good or bad more easily. However, for the company Gepa the world is not that simple. It pointed out that there are fixed, legal provisions and regulations for organic products, but not for fair trade. According to own accounts, Gepa is treading its own path as a mediator. Good certifications are needed, some of which Gepa is already cooperating with: "We want to work together with innovative, modern standards that also address pioneering themes."

For FairTSA it is not necessarily about having one's own label either. "It is about realising a vision. Our brand is of secondary importance," emphasised Winfried Fuchshofen. FairTSA also works together with people, who don't use the brand and the company is against monopolies. What it would however welcome for the fair trade section, is mutual recognitions. However, since he doesn't think this will happen in the near future, the consumers will have to carry on living with the diversity for the time being.

According to Friedrun Sachs, Naturland initiated the Fair & Sozial certification at the request of the producers. After products with the Fair Trade seal suddenly appeared on sale at the discounter, Lidl, an alternative was requested. Furthermore, the producers also wanted to have a special certification for the raw products from the global North.

Artz-Steinbrink explained that when the FairBio association was founded no own seal had been planned. Then, it was supposed to be documented on the packing that monitoring had been carried out, but there had been no suitable existing Fair Trade seal, which focused above all on the regionality. A further point that led to the Naturland Fair & Sozial certification, was that few Naturland factories were members of the FairBio association, the members were virtually only from Bioland and Demeter. It was stated that the FairBio association is however always open to other cooperations and is currently making it possible for not only manufacturers, but also the trade and producers to become members. There is to be no gap in the value chain.

If there continue to be so many different seals, would it not at least make sense to define legally what is fair trade and what isn't? This proposal by Bernward Geier is viewed rather critically by the fair trade experts.

Peter Schaumberger then stated quite clearly: "In that case as a movement we will lose the sovereignty of interpretation. It would then lie in the bureaucracy and no longer with the players.” An outlook that doesn't thrill the pioneers.