LONDON/KIGALI: The cocoa beans harvested by Comfort Kwaasibea in Ghana end up on supermarket shelves in Britain as chocolate bars with an ethical twist. Kwaasibea, 46, is one of many Ghanaian farmers behind a range of Fairtrade chocolate products ambitiously called Divine.
Fairtrade producers receive a minimum guaranteed price to meet living expenses and cover production costs, plus an extra premium that is invested in the local community. The Fairtrade price is always equal to, or higher than, the world price.
“My life has changed,” Kwaasibea said. Since going Fairtrade seven years ago, she has been able to take into her care four children from poor families as well as help provide school uniforms for the local school.
More than one million producers, workers and their families in 50 countries benefit from Fairtrade, according to the certification body Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International.
However, observers say changes to the scheme are needed and campaigners believe fair prices are not enough and hope a draft accord by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on agriculture, due in April, will help poor countries by lowering trade barriers.
“Fairtrade certification helps stabilize the price year after year for farmers rather than leave them to fend for themselves in a volatile market,” said Tim Schilling, the director of the Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL), which focuses on coffee production.
Fairtrade prices are so far only ‘fairer’ than standard prices, he told Reuters, adding that Fairtrade ‘eases some of the pain’ for farmers.
“But these farmers are a long way away from having a decent standard of living with the Fairtrade prices.”
Critics also say Fairtrade certification, which requires farmers to pay annual fees for inspection, is expensive.
“The process is indeed expensive, when you consider you’re dealing with people with average incomes of around $200 to $500 per year,” Schilling said. “However, the stability in prices over the long term is worth every penny.”
To qualify for the Fairtrade mark, producers have to comply with environmental and labour standards, such as paying fair wages and using no child labour. Spot checks are sometimes carried out, and producers can lose their certification.
Fairtrade inspections also help cooperatives manage their affairs in a more business-like fashion, Schilling added.
Kwaasibea says many more farmers in her village want to join the scheme. “They are rushing. They are rushing to become Fairtrade members,” she told Reuters.
According to Britain’s Fairtrade Foundation, which promotes the scheme, more farmers will be able to join it only when supply is matched by demand for the goods.
“Only as we expand the market can we enable more and more producers to come in,” the foundation’s executive director Harriet Lamb told Reuters.
And the demand is growing.
The Fairtrade Foundation says sales in Britain, the largest Fairtrade market in the world, rose 40 per cent last year, while the number of producer groups selling to the UK grew by half in the past nine months.
“They’re wired, they’re connected, they want to do their part...these are great people,” PEARL’s Schilling said of Fairtrade shoppers.
In spite of the growth, however, Fairtrade needs wider consumer support if it is to help a considerable proportion of farmers in the developing world.
Fairtrade coffee, the most popular Fairtrade product among Britons, accounts for just over four per cent of the British coffee market. All ethical labels, including Fairtrade and Organic, account for less than three per cent of the global coffee market.
Schilling would like to see the quality of Fairtrade coffee improved and higher premiums paid to the farmers.
“You need to have consumers who like the philosophy and the taste of the coffee so that they return to buy more,” he said.
“If you have to hold your nose to drink it, something isn’t right.”
In turn, the Fairtrade Foundation wants governments to invest 50 million pounds over five years in supporting and expanding Fairtrade and would like Britain to champion the initiative.
Governments worldwide have an important role to play in promoting fair international trade, of which the Fairtrade scheme is only a small part, campaigners say.—Reuters
