Ten new greenhouses for Thai farmers from Fairtrade Original
Herb farmer Khun Orachan at one of the greenhouses (Photo: Fairtrade)
This autumn, Fairtrade Original and Coop joined forces for the second year in a row during Fairtrade Week. Another campaign was set up to draw more attention to fair trade and to encourage consumers to buy Fairtrade products more often.
Coop customers received a 25% discount on the entire Fairtrade range during Fairtrade Week. In addition, 10 euro cents per Fairtrade product sold were donated to the farmers' group in Sisaket, in the northeast of Thailand, which grows the ingredients for Fairtrade Original's Thai spice pastes. In total, an amount of 20.000 euros was raised, more than 2.000 euros more than the target behavior. This meant that all proposed plans could be implemented and ten new greenhouses were recently realized.
Building a stronger supply chain together
The construction of the ten new greenhouses has recently been completed. By growing the peppers and other ingredients in the greenhouses, they are protected against insects and the heavy rainfall that occurs more often in the winter months. This guarantees farmers a second harvest. This enables them to grow further, increase their production sales and thus strengthen the cooperative.
Farmers practice making organic products, which are used in combination with the organic fertilizer (Photo: Fairtrade)
Due to the success of the action, it is also possible to expand the central storage space for the farmers and the buffer zones around their farms are strengthened. These buffer zones protect the crops against the influence of surrounding farms and insects with green netting and the planting of elephant grass in the edges. The farmers are also supported with extra Fairtrade training and the farmers receive a subsidy on organic manure.
“Another campaign was set up to draw more attention to fair trade and to encourage consumers to buy Fairtrade products more often.”
An important initiative in itself, but the above is significant.
If you want to draw attention to fair trade, it is better for COOP to talk to the sector association of supermarkets to arrange for fairer prices to be paid nationally. That does not (always) work even with Dutch producers and therefore makes it a cheap marketing stunt.
The other point of buying Fairtrade products more often is also nicely invented and that is where the ball lies with all those certification companies that do not necessarily represent the interests of the producer.
The game is simple. The big players want a better social image and the certifications supposedly prove that, but the latter is often only reserved for the mediated organization.
The farmer gets a tip for the photos, the consumer pays the top prize and the COOP gets the applause.
Real fair trade can be achieved by allowing a social monopoly. Monopoly is another dirty word so it continues to struggle and fair trade remains a nice fairy tale that can be told for years to come.