Preda Fair Trade (www.pretrade@predafairtrade.net) is working to end world hunger through fair trade by paying fair prices for products and finding markets for the surplus mangos of the small farmers and indigenous people.
There is nothing more heartbreaking than to visit the indigenous people in remote mountain villages during the ripening time of Pico mangos for Pico mangos and to see hundreds of Pico mangos scattered on the ground and eaten only by the pigs and picked at by the birds. In the remote mountains the fruit has no commercial value as it cannot be brought to the market and the value is low in comparison to the more valued fruit variety Carabao mango. But Pico variety mango is sweeter and even more delicious yet fashion has placed it on the low value shelf. Preda aims to change that so that the upland farmers can get a higher price for their wild exotic fruit and improve their impoverished lives.
The people eat the fruit but have no way to get a good fair price for it. There is no transportation and few roads from the mountains to the lowland towns,However when the carabao season is over and carabao mango is scarce then Pico can be sold at a higher price in the town markets.
Local traders from the closest towns go to the mountains and barter small amounts of rice and canned goods for the Pico mango harvest or they buy it for 5 to 8 pesos a kilo.The people are desperate for food take any amount for there mangos even if it is unfair and they are being cheated. They have no choice. The traders exploit the poor people. They truck it to the market where they sell it for a high profit especially when there are no Carabao mangos available.
Preda fair Trade has now expanded its contacts with many more villages of the indigenous people in Zambales and Bataan and is offering to buy their Pico mangos at a very high price 100% higher than what the commercial traders pay for them. The Pico mangos will be processed to delicious sugar free and preservative free dried mangos in 2013. They will also be certified organic in the near future.This will be a big help and economic benefit for the small uphill farmers and indigenous people.
There are ongoing development projects for the people who live in poverty but with the help of Preda-and Misereor food production is improving and goat dispersal is bringing quality livestock into the villages and improving the nutrition and protein in the diet. Preda is also working with Trocaire Ireland to provide housing to indigenous people who have be relocated because of the floods, landslides and earthquakes.
