“Perhaps the current changes are seen as positive by consumers and the Fair Trade world, but they will exclude once and for all small farmers if we do not make the right decisions; if this happens, once again we will stop local community development and negatively impact good environmental practices: the market will win but the world will lose a unique system able to create change working with small organized farmers.”
The following letter was sent to the North American Fair Trade Council by Marike de Pena, Vice President of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Producer Organizations (CLAC). Marike, who is also the Director of BANELINO, a small banana farmer co-op in the Dominican Republic, wrote the Council to express her views about Fair Trade USA’s controversial new certification scheme which allows plantations to become Fair Trade certified under their new initiative, Fair Trade For All.
June 10, 2012
Dear Friends:
This is a time of many changes in Fair Trade that affect the survival and future of small farmers.
Large scale private owned plantations are harmful to small producer organizations (SPO) in many ways, as they generate unfair competition.
- First, by affecting sustainable prices (they have lower costs, more access to information, finance, technology, logistics, etc.). As an example we can mention bananas, the minimum Fair Trade price which was settled on is NOT sustainable for small farmers and their organizations because it was a compromise between what a plantation needs, a SPO needs, and the market; the outcome favors markets and plantations.
- Unfair competition is also the outcome of a lack of commitment in the industry: it is a lot easier, cheaper, faster and safer to buy from the big estates. Then, you have unfair competition in raising standards: when you have plantations in a crop, just to make it look more ethical, Fair Trade raises the labor standards and the consumer and media assume that these standards apply also to SPOs since we all use labor in agriculture.In bananas, they check us more on labor, threatening small farmers as well as wealthy employers, without caring any more about their miserable and difficult lives, affected by low prices, lower volumes (because of low prices they can invest less in production and productivity falls), high costs and climate change damages. Labor standards, environmental standards, and high conditions on food safety and infrastructure, all as a result of and to justify the existence of plantations in the system, are pushing small farmers out of Fair Trade.
- The last tendency will be the Unions fighting for workers, as they are considered to be the poorest of the poorest; nobody cares anymore about small farmers, whose incomes are far below workers’ income, with no protection through any laws, no social security, no pension funds, no protection against climate change and no guarantee of markets. Plantations in Fair Trade did not enter to solve poor working conditions, rather, they entered to serve the market faster and cheaper. They create unfair competition in Fair Trade, and will change the direction of Fair Trade to a charity movement and not a movement that supports farmers through empowerment and progress thanks to stable markets and sustainable prices; a movement that enables farmers to create progress through their own efforts and work.
As the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Producers (CLAC), it is our mission and responsibility to represent the small farmer; sometimes the system even questions our commitment and considers us to not be inclusive. Perhaps the current changes are seen as positive by consumers and the Fair Trade world, but they will exclude once and for all small farmers if we do not make the right decisions; if this happens, once again we will stop local community development and negatively impact good environmental practices: the market will win but the world will lose a unique system able to create change working with small organized farmers.
Regards,
Marike de Pena, Vice-President CLAC
Response from Mary Jo Cook, Chief Impact Officer, Fair Trade USA
Over a Decade of Impact in Fair Trade Certified Bananas
for both Small Farmer Organizations and Farm Workers
Fair Trade USA is a mission-driven, non-profit organization. We strive to empower farmers and farm workers to fight poverty, improve their lives and protect the environment.
I would like to take the opportunity to address some of the concerns raised by Marike de Pena, the Vice President of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Small Producer Organizations (CLAC) in a letter sent today to the North American Fair Trade Council and posted by Equal Exchange.
We greatly respect the opinions and work of the CLAC. At the same time, it’s important to understand that for over a decade, Fair Trade USA and FLO have been working with banana farmers – both small farmer organizations and farm workers who don’t own their own land and work on banana estates – and both groups have participated in the benefits of Fair Trade. In 2011 alone, small farmer organizations and farm workers earned about $1.4 million in community development premiums from their U.S. sales of Fair Trade Certified™ bananas. In addition:
1. In 2010, FLO conducted a study which concluded that small banana farmers continue to be highly successful in growing both their volume and their share of Fair Trade global sales even when competing with estates. In global Fair Trade Certified banana production, there were 39 small farmer organizations and 40 estates. The small farmer organizations were entering Fair Trade at a slightly faster rate than estates. In addition, while the number of farms classified as large and small was about even, 2 out of every 3 Fair Trade bananas sold worldwide came from small farmers, showing that small farmer organizations had a far greater market share than estates. In terms of Fair Trade banana sales, small farmer organizations accounted for 4 out of the 5 largest banana producers.
2. Between 2010 and 2011, US sales of Fair Trade bananas from small farmer organizations rose 88%, while estate sales grew only 11%. Small farmer organizations supplied about 55% of the sales to Fair Trade USA customers in 2011, and we expect their market share in bananas to grow to about 65% in 2012. Fair Trade USA has had a strong, ongoing commitment to help small farmers access the market while providing the support they need to do so successfully. The small farmer organizations are proving they are every bit as capable of providing high quality bananas and good service as the estates.
3. Fair Trade USA has been, and continues to be, 100% committed to strengthening small farmer organizations. Since 2006, Fair Trade USA and its partners have invested over $10 million in programs to strengthen small-scale farming communities in projects spanning produce, sugar, cocoa, tea and coffee. Building on this deep history of development work, in 2011 we took a new approach, called “Co-op Link,” helping small farmer organizations / cooperatives improve quality, increase productivity, access capital cost-effectively and become stronger business partners. This in turn helps small farmer organizations become more competitive, increase their ability to successfully partner with US companies, grow their sales and profitability, and deliver more impact to their members. For example, by working with a network of farmer groups, NGOs and traders, Fair Trade USA has seen small mango farmers in Haiti not only double their income by cutting out middleman and receiving the Fair Trade premium but increase their membership four-fold in just one year. The program grew from 8 to 18 small farmer cooperatives representing more than 8,000 farmers with just 3 trees each on average. Through capacity building, quality improvements and a strong commitment from buyers, we expect this program to continue to grow.
Fair Trade USA fundamentally believes that all farmers and workers should have access to the opportunities and benefits of Fair Trade. This is at the heart of our Fair Trade for All initiative. The issues raised by the CLAC’s letter regarding banana farms are not related to Fair Trade USA’s commitment to strengthening small farmer organizations while simultaneously broadening the impact of Fair Trade to include all farmers: in bananas, tea and flowers, FLO and Fair Trade USA have been including farm workers who don’t own their own land in the benefits of Fair Trade for over a decade.
Fair Trade USA understands that in times of growth and change there is often uncertainty, and we encourage open, honest, and respectful debate. I would encourage those who are interested in learning more to read about these issues in our 2011 Almanac, Co-op Link program, and our Bananas Impact Report. We continue to invest in and support small farmer organizations to ensure they remain strong and competitive now and in the future, while broadening Fair Trade so we can deliver more impact to more people.
Thank you for your interest in Fair Trade,
Mary Jo Cook, Chief Impact Officer, Fair Trade USA