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Ending poverty in Africa is not about being fair! #fairtrade

Posted by IdaHorner on February 23, 2010 · View Comments 

Week beginning 15 February 2010 was always going to be a very exciting week at Ethnic Supplies Ltd for several reasons

We had submitted samples of beads from Uganda and Rwanda to a UK based wholesaler of beads and she loved the lot so much so that she decided to include them in Major Art and crafts Exhibition.

  • My colleague Neil had secured us an appointment with John Lewis for 9:00AM sharp on 16th February 2010.
  • The BBC World Service had just returned from Rwanda where they recorded a programme about our involvement with the ladies at Gahaya links – see Gahaya links blog
  • Our proposal to Uganda’s Private sector forum had been delivered and initial reactions were positive

So as you can see we had a lot to be excited about.

Following the meeting with John Lewis we hit the road running as one of the key points that came out that meeting was to come up with a strong collection of jewellery that is suitable to the British market.

We shared this information with people in our network and by close of business on Thursday 18th February 2010 we had two firm offers one from Suhad and another from Gill the Beads wholesaler. The idea is that both Suhad and Gill will use their design skills to create jewellery designs that women can reproduce, in other words share their skills with Africa women to enable them to enter the UK market.

As Neil and I considered this offer we couldn’t believe our luck but more so the generosity of both Gill and Suhad. We shared this news with Joy and her reactions was

“This is what we need folk share their skills with us so that we have a clear understanding of the European market and be able to compete in it”

Neil said to me “Ida, both those women understand what we have been telling folk out there for a while; ending poverty in Africa isn’t about being fair! It is about skills sharing, to enable folk in the developing regions to produce goods/Services that are suitable for the market; it is about value addition at source!”

Where is Neil with his thought process?

When I first met Neil way back in 2007 he was involved in a revolutionary project that saw the first ever bar of chocolate produced, processed, packaged and distributed from Africa (Madagascar) and this chocolate is currently available in Waitrose, Sainsbury as well as in the USA.

Neil called this EQUITRADE which later became RAISETRADE. In his mind Fairtrade simply didn’t go far enough and the only way to truly lift folk in the developing world out of poverty was through VALUE ADDITION AT SOURCE. It was this that brought us together and in 2009 we became partners on both Ethnic Supplies and RAISETRADE projects

This is how Neil explains the notion of RAISETRADE

“RAISETRADE” expertise relates to creating ways and strategies of increasing value in the private sector in the economies of countries that are mainly subsistence based and rely heavily on trading in cash crops and commodities.  Emphasis is placed on business training, mentoring for attracting investment and developing trade in higher value goods and services for the local economy.

raisetrade1

Most developing countries mainly export farmed or mined commodities and yet there is more potential to add more financial value (origin, specialty and premium ingredients, manufacturing, processing, packaging, branding) to these and other commodities and services within their economies. Adding value elsewhere means that only 3% of the profit remains in the developing country whilst 97% is earned elsewhere.

raisetrade2raisetrade3

As we go through Fairtrade fortnight we will be encouraged to buy Fairtrade to support farmers in the developing world.

  • My question is could we do more?

How much do you understand about Fairtrade?

Do you buy Fairtrade? If so why?

and if not why not?

Is Neil right in his views that ending poverty in the developing regions is not about being fair?
This is the debate we had during last year’s Fairtrade fortnight and you may note that some of the same questions remain today and here is The Guardian’s take on Fairtrade

What’s your take?

Ida

Ida Horner is the Founder of Ethnic Supplies and blogs about issues of international development

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  • I'm also one who trusts that Fairtrade is exactly that - fair - and of course buy wherever possible. It is encouraging to see the likes of Morrisons providing fairtrade sugar as standard - I was pleased to see that the other day.

    But indeed - more is needed. Perhaps with people like you, Ida, telling us what the specific needs are, more of us will realise that we can do more too.
  • You raise an interesting point Babs, most folk do not what is going on or what they can do to help that does not involve them spending money they can ill afford. One of my objectives is to wherever possible bring "stories"/news from the other side of the coin.
  • This is a very interesting post Ida. I must confess to knowing little about fairtrade - but I guess folks response to it probably has less to do with knowledge and more to do with perception.

    I buy some fairtrade products, but my guess is that it has similar issues to those faced by the organic market - it is perecived by many that you are paying a premium in order to create a 'fair' market. One of the issues is that low volume production means that prices will inevitably be higher - and this is where for me the RaiseTrade idea has the potential to create so much impact. By teaching them these skills they will not only have more of the value chain in production but also develop abilities to produce in greater volume - and that will in turn reduce prices and allow them to compete on more of a level playing field. That should in theory open their products up to more of the mass market.

    What a fantastic scheme you're creating here Ida; congratulations on your progress may you continue to go from strength to strength. Maybe you could set up a skill-share website or forum where folks could contribute to an information bank that might help?
  • Many thanks Elaine.
    The high premium does kill market access to a certain extent, however on handmade goods the premium is inevitable because it takes the artisans that much longer to produce one item.

    I often have this discussion with folk in relation to the handmade wild silk scarves from Madagascar. The whole process including collecting the cocoons , weaving, spinning etc is by hand and the end of each week the woman has produced only 1 scarf that retails at £32. Some folk appreciate this but do not have the means to pay £32 for a scarf and that is OK, whilst something believe the scarf is very cheap given the work that goes into it!

    The other point too especially in Africa, you are unlikely to find sweat shops and the wages tend to be high and this impacts retail prices. Getting the balance right is not easy, (here in the UK, most of us like producers to be treated well but we also like a bargain)

    I like the idea of a skill-share forum, the RaiseTrade website is under development and we explore including a forum
  • Thank you for a very informative post, good to know what it's all about.
  • Heather, I am glad you found the post useful
  • Morag
    We do buy Fairtrade in our household. In fact, my 11 year old made a speech about Fairtrade for a public speaking competition at his school, he feels so strongly about it. Woe betide me if I put anything in my trolley that is not Fairtrade, if there is such an option available!

    I like the idea of adding value at source, to accrue more of the profits at that stage. I wish it well.
  • it is very reassuring that some so young as your son is able to see the benefits of Fairtrade. Most African countries have started looking at ways of adding value to their produce at source, in fact that is something the Ugandan private sector forum has invited to help them with
  • Morag
    As an aside, it drives me MAD when I see adverts for people like Asda talking about always rolling back prices - if their prices go down, yet their profits go up, no prizes for working out it's the suppliers who get screwed.

    Capitalist marketing is deeply immoral, by deliberately stopping people from thinking who is bearing the cost.

    In my cloth nappy business, we give out 10 free paper nappy liners (retail value only pennies), to help people choose between 3 or 4 different types before they buy any. Then Martin Lewis comes along and puts it on his money saving website, so we get loads of requests for free liners, because it's a "freebie". Completely pointless and yet again encourages people to think only about money and not the small businesses behind it.
  • Sadly we all contribute to the supermarkets' squeezing of the small man. There is an interesting development in the food production chain with the west heading south in what has become termed as the "land grab" in order to feed us.

    I am watching all that with interest;-)
  • Morag
    AND (while I'm on this rantette!), if supermarkets paid proper prices in the first place, there would be no need for Fairtrade. Oh but no, they are all about screwing the little guy, while we shoppers happily lap it up.
  • Thanks Ida.

    I also buy Fairtrade whenever I can - always coffee and sugar for instance - but I don't really know very much about it. I certainly can see that there is huge potential for adding vaue at source. The beads are certainly beautiful - and what a brilliant idea for Suhad and Gill to contribute their expertise.
  • I really like the idea of skills sharing. On my last visit to Tanzania, i spent a whole afternoon teaching the women out there how to sue the various google tools, blogs/picassa/email that sort of thing as a way of telling the world about their work. I also learned something in the process.

    Value Addition is especially important to women involved in handicraft production. They take raw materials that would be otherwise cast off as rubbish and turn them into beautiful crafts but sadly these are currently not certified by anyone and bizarrely the lack of such a certificates prevents some folk form buying such goods.

    Our next step is to introduce a certificate that is centered on value addition at source that will include the women's work
  • I buy Fairtrade whenever I can, but I know little about it. So thank you, Ida, for sharing that - and I look forward to learning more about it.
  • Fairtrade does a fab job of raising awareness of the need to support farmers in the developing world but I think it is time to move onto the next step VALUE ADDITION at source
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