There was a stillness in the audience as Brazil nut gatherers shared their story from a Bolivian forest, via a screen in a central London conference room.
Over the hum of wildlife and against the backdrop of trees, one tough-talking voice in particular cut through as a powerful reminder of what Fairtrade stands for.
“A fair price brings justice,” said Yoselina Quette. “It’s fair that if someone works hard that they are properly rewarded”.
If fair prices are the seed from which justice grows, the Fairtrade Foundation has become an expert at working with businesses over the past 20 years to make sure the roots of that seed run deep.
Now, to go even further, that means working beyond Fairtrade certification on its own. Through our new Deepening Impact pilot programme, we have teamed up with businesses on specific projects to deliver lasting change for communities like Yoselina’s.
Over the last three years, the programme, part-funded by the Department for International Development, has seen companies in the UK work with over 7,000 farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in five thematic areas. They include direct support to producer organisations, preferential sourcing, buying practices, influencing consumer behaviour and transparency.
In short, that means benefits for farmers and benefits for businesses, as Waitrose, coffee roaster Matthew Algie and nut company Liberation Foods confirmed at our recent event to share what they had learned with other companies who are keen to create more ethical supply chains.
Liberation, who shot the film featuring Yoselina, spoke about a project to strengthen communication and accountability in their Brazil nut value chain, which resulted in greater transparency (pdf).
Meanwhile, Matthew Algie worked (pdf) with Marks & Spencer and Ethiopian Fairtrade coffee farmers to develop their natural processing capabilities. Through training, the farmers have increased the productivity of their farms and their income. Matthew Algie and M&S have been able to source more high quality beans for their customers, too.
Waitrose worked with a group (pdf) of Brazilian Fairtrade coffee farmers it sources beans from. As a result, the farmers have seen infrastructure improvements, such as through the laying of concrete drying patios which has enabled less contamination of their coffee. This has helped to improve their production and also led to stronger and more transparent relationships with customers.
The seed money for most of the programme has come from the businesses involved, match-funded by Fairtrade. There has been extra investment too, leveraged from other businesses, funding bodies, local NGOs and farmer groups themselves, which has collectively grown the amount of money invested by 400%.
We’ve seen examples of learnings rippling out to neighbouring communities too. For example, in Guatemala a joint project by Fairtrade and Percol that has supported farmers to eradicate a coffee plant disease which has been destroying crops, will now be rolled out in four or five other locations by Fairtrade’s regional network in Latin America.
An external review commissioned by Fairtrade has also revealed positive outcomes. “To date, the Deepening Impact programme has been very successful,” says consultant Matthew Reynolds. “It has facilitated both commercial and Fairtrade organisation partners to engage and strengthen relationships with producer organisations and most importantly to support those organisations to increase their prosperity and security”.
Amali Bunter, responsible sourcing manager at Waitrose, believes that it is exactly the kind of programme the Fairtrade Foundation should be doing.
“The Deepening Impact programme has helped us gain a deeper understanding of the social, economic and environmental challenges facing producers within complex supply chains,” she said.
“The programme’s focus is on working together to achieve joint objectives nurturing collaboration between everyone in the supply chain and including NGOs.”
She added: “It’s been an important project to further demonstrate to our business the value Fairtrade can bring to the sustainability of supply chains.”
For us at the Foundation, Deepening Impact has not only strengthened our relationships with businesses but also helped demonstrate the value that these types of targeted interventions can bring to both business and producer organisations.
“For us, it’s about using our vast experience to add further value beyond our core work and seeing where we can create the most impact for farmers,” says Euan Venters, commercial director. “This pilot has proven that a relatively small investment can kick-start even greater transformational change for farmers and workers in Fairtrade supply chains.”
Looking to the future, we’ll be sharing more of our successes and learning throughout the year. We’ll then scale up our pilot approach with more multi-stakeholder producer-led projects in 2017. That way, as Yoselina says, everyone can be properly rewarded for their hard work.
If you are interested in working with Fairtrade on creating a more ethical and sustainable supply chain, contact commercial@fairtrade.org.uk
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
