BioFach and Vivaness: Organic + Fair is Theme of the Year 2010

Fair trade and sustainable management with consideration of economic, social and ecological aspects are among the cornerstones of entrepreneurial operations in the organic sector. Visitors to BioFach and Vivaness 2009 experienced products from organic and fair production for the first time at a separate special show called Organic + Fair. 29 exhibitors and 125 product presentations reflected the international, national and regional aspects of the whole fair trade spectrum. Altogether 46,771 trade visitors were impressed by the range of products offered by the 2,744 exhibitors at the world’s leading exhibitions for organic products, natural personal care and wellness in 2009. The focus in 2010 is on Organic + Fair.
“A growing number of today’s customers take a close look at the creation processes of the products that end up in their shopping baskets. Organic manufacturers are traditionally morally convicted as far as fairness is concerned,” says Udo Funke, Exhibition Director of BioFach and Vivaness. “Organic + Fair offers them all a supplementary platform for showing a professional audience the various aspects of fair trade such as social responsibility, either with their own stand or simply via a separate product presentation.”

Organic Monitor of London, Great Britain, estimates sales of fair trade products at over 3.5 billion US dollars in 2008. Two-thirds of all fair trade products come from organic farming. Products bearing the Fairtrade label of Transfair, the internationally operating, German non-profit association based in Bonn, Germany, achieved sales of approx. 2.9 billion EUR in 2008 – 25 % more than the previous year. Besides Germany, the strong growth markets in Europe include Great Britain, France and Scandinavia. The Fairtrade label is known throughout the world and enjoys the confidence of consumers. In 15 countries examined as part of a Fairtrade Study, half the interviewees say they know this label, and nine out of ten people think it is credible. 64 % of all consumers identify Fairtrade with strict standards, which are directly related to consumer confidence. Almost 75 % consider independent certification is the best way to make a product’s ethical claim credible. 120 independent inspectors check 1,150 traders in 73 countries and 870 producer groups in 58 countries. Bananas are one of the classic Fairtrade products and there are currently 60 producers of Fairtrade bananas, who sold 234,112 t of fruit worldwide in 2007.

During the financial crisis, which brings heavy fluctuations in raw material prices in its wake, fair trade plays a vital role. Fair wages provide an important contribution to securing the existence of millions of small farmers and their families in Africa, Asia, South America and Central America.

Fair trade traditionally designates the trade between prosperous industrial countries and developing countries, but attention is also focusing on fair wages for domestic farmers in Europe. For example, milk producer prices: Thanks to an initiative by the Upländer Bauernmolkerei dairy and the introduction of fair milk, an awareness has been created for organic milk prices in Germany. At the beginning of 2009, the major organic dairies and other players in the value creation chain negotiated a fair milk price (currently some 40 cent per litre) with the producers. At the beginning of May 2009, an action alliance of dairies, associations and wholesalers under the direction of the German Organic Producers and Traders Association (BNN) launched an information campaign protesting against milk price dumping in the conventional retail food trade and advocating the purchase of organic milk.

German consumers bought Gepa products worth 73 million Euro in 2008. The wholesale turnover of Gepa – the Association for the Promotion of Partnerships with the Third World, based in Wuppertal, Germany – rose by 2.5 % to 54 million Euro in the same trading year. “Solidarity and not greed must be the driving force in a global economy. Fair trade offers the opportunity to show this, especially during the crisis,” explains Thomas Speck, General Manager of Gepa. “What we as pioneer have pushed for 34 years is becoming increasingly important for many consumers, namely the combination of socio-ecological aspects with product quality.”

A trend to fair trade products can also be detected in France: 85 % of the French have heard of fair trade and a quarter of all households buy fair trade products, according to a study conducted in 2007 by market researcher TNS of Munich, Germany. The company Alter Eco (picture) experienced an impressive rise to become market leader in the fair trade segment in France. Founded by Tristan Lecomte in 1998, it had already achieved sales of almost 20 million EUR with fair trade chocolate, tea, coffee, juices and dried fruits by the end of 2008. Alter Eco then launched its zero emission programme and brought CO2-neutral chocolate onto the market. Sales of fair trade food in the French conventional retail food trade in 2008 amounted to 114 million EUR, of which coffee alone accounted for 54 %. Chocolate achieved 14 %, tea 9 % and juices 5 %, and miscellaneous products such as spices and dried fruits held a share of 18 %.

In Great Britain, sales of products bearing the Fairtrade mark topped the 700 million pounds mark in 2008, according to the Fairtrade Foundation. This corresponds to 43 % growth over 2007. Tea, sugar and cotton doubled their sales figures, and the biggest demand was for bananas, which registered 27 % growth to 184 million pounds. Approx. 18 million British households bought fair trade products in 2008, 1.3 million more than the year before, according to the market researchers from the TNS Worldpanel.

In Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, fair trade is known mainly under the name of Max Havelaar. Max Havelaar was the title of a book published in the Netherlands in 1860, which took a critical look at the colonial administration. In Finland, fair trade is supported by the organization Reilun kaupan edistämisyhdistys ry and in Spain by the Asociación del Sello de Comercio Justo. But common to all of them since 2003 is the blue–green–black Fairtrade logo of Transfair in Bonn, Germany.

The more popular fair trade products become and the more this is expressed in the corresponding willingness to buy, the more labels there are. Some suppliers of fair trade products have had products on the market for decades, for example, the hand-in-hand label of the German organic manufacturer Rapunzel.

The resources produced by this project are paid into a fund which is managed by the German environmental organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe. In contrast to the term organic, which is protected by legislation in the EU, USA, Japan and many other countries, the term fair trade is not protected. Fair trade is governed exclusively by private industry guidelines and agreements, which makes orientation and credibility assessment difficult for customers. It is all the more important to have these self-imposed standards checked by independent certification bodies.

The company FLO-Cert in Bonn, Germany, was founded as a subsidiary of Transfair and offers its services in more than 70 countries. The company is sponsored by 24 international member organizations, which own the Fairtrade mark. They determine the decisions made by FLO, the federation of fair trade movements. Certification by FLO-Cert is intended to give the trade and consumers security. The certified products meet the criteria of the international federation. This ensures that the sale of products with the FLO mark really contributes to improving the socio-economic conditions in the countries of origin.

The guidelines and general conditions for a large part of fair trade are defined by FLO and worked out in consultation with the member organizations in the individual countries. Key points of the standard: minimum prices for producers, a surcharge that can be used for social and environmental projects, possible pre-financing of crops, long-term partnerships between suppliers and customers, and continuously updated terms that define the economic and social framework for cooperation. The Fairtrade Standards are developed in agreement with the guidelines of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL), an international federation for the development of social and environmental standards. Besides FLO, the Swiss Institute for Marketecology (IMO) and the French certifier Ecocert certify Fairtrade products.