HOW AND WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH AGROFAIR AND FAIRTRADE?
I started working for Twin in 1998, the Fairtrade organisation which launched Divine Chocolate and Café Direct. Then in 2001, Agrofair approached Twin to join them in setting up Agrofair UK to bring in the first Fairtrade fruit. I had always wanted to work in this area. I spent years working in Zimababwe with VSO and Sierra Leone with Christian Aid and I wanted to use trade and business as a way of changing how things are done, to make a real difference to real lives.
CAN ANY PRODUCERS GET INVOLVED IN FAIRTRADE?
When producers look towards Fairtrade opportunities they have to make sure they have the right facilities to do so. It is not easy but it is about building up the capacity. We often work with producers for a number of years, selling their fruit as conventional, before we think they are ready to market it under the Fairtrade marque. Fairtrade produce has to be as good as if not better than any other produce.
There can’t be any gaps in availability and the producers have got to know what the market requires so there is a responsibility on representatives in the European value-added market to make sure producers are ready to rise to the demands. If the producers are really strong, it is an easy transition.
DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF FAIRTRADE-CERTIFIED FARMS IN THE FUTURE?
I think that where there’s demand, supply will come. The challenge is twofold: for the market side to present it as positively as possible and then experience shows us it will sell; and on the producer side, to make sure they are as competitive as they can be. It is best not to chase supply and push through bad quality fruit that will ruin the reputation of Fairtrade.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR FAIRTRADE ACTIVISTS TO DATE?
The biggest challenge has been to convince the supermarkets that it is a commercially viable offer, which they can consistently have in their range and that it will be accepted. But experience has shown, first by Fairtrade banana sales - which the Co-op demanded first and were then rolled out to the other supermarkets - that it does work. The ongoing challenge now is to maintain the quality of the fruit going through and then it will naturally grow, as each category of fruit is doing now.
FAIRTRADE SEEMS TO COME UNDER FIRE FROM PEOPLE CLAIMING IT DOESN’T OR CAN’T EFFECT THE KIND OF SOCIAL CHANGE IT LAYS CLAIM TO. DO YOU THINK THERE IS ANY TRUTH IN THAT?
What Fairtrade does is give security. You’ll hear about schools getting resources and other benefits, but the main thing about Fairtrade is that the producers involved have greater security over the volumes they are selling and the prices they are getting, They therefore have a more secure future and that’s why it does change lives.
In the past the business of small- hold producers has always been at the whim of local traders who may decide to send so much volume one week and then nothing the next, but it is a very different story when producers actually get to form a relationship with a supermarket. It is the idea of ‘reverse traceability’. The producers get to know whom they are selling to so they are not just pawns in the supply chain game.
ONE EXPORTER OF FAIRTRADE PRODUCE TOLD ME THAT HE COULD ONLY SELL ONE FIFTH OF HIS YIELD IN A RECOGNISED FAIRTRADE FORMAT, WHILE THE REST WOULD BE SOLD AS CONVENTIONAL. DOES THIS HAPPEN A LOT, TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE?
Obviously this is not a favourable ratio and in this situation it would be necessary to assess the viability of selling Fairtrade produce in this way. One of the things Agrofair does is to consolidate supply from a number of different producers to manage the supply and demand situation at agreed prices.
Then, in addition to those agreed volumes, if the producers have surplus products which they want us to sell we will sell them on the conventional market and try and get the best price available.
GIVEN SUCH INCIDENCES IT SEEMS THE MARKET IS NOT GROWING FAST ENOUGH. HOW DO YOU PROPOSE TO CHANGE THAT?
The figures show the market is actually growing quite fast in certain countries, especially for bananas in Europe. One of the ways forward is to make the offer more consumer-friendly. Waitrose, for example, now has a loose offer on Fairtrade bananas and if that proves successful, I would hope it gets copied by other retailers.
And I hope similar initiatives will follow in other areas. The Fairtrade story is a good one but it comes down to the reality of different items - does a product sit well in the category to be expanded?
There is also a job to make it as presentable as possible and that involves partnerships among different companies, especially the retailers, to make the products look great and get the message across.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF FAIRTRADE?
I would like to see Fairtrade become a larger part of the mainstream market. That’s the challenge for all of us. Clearly this will only be done by there being a receptivity of retailers to test the fruit in a wider format and for consumers to buy it.
We have already seen this from consumers in other sectors. For example, some 20 per cent of all UK retail roast and ground coffee sales are now Fairtrade. If consumers buy it, it works. It has to be win, win, win. It is not about charity, it is about a different business model that can work for producers.
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