INTERNATIONAL FAIR TRADE TOWNS, A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE
Shay Cullen.
Poznan, 9 November 2012
Dear Friends and Fair Traders,
I am very thankful to be present here today to share with you the work of Preda developmental Fair Trade in working with crafts people and small mango farmers. But also I welcome this opportunity to restate the purpose and final goal of FairTrade as I see it and how this conference on the impact and value of the Fair Trade Town can bring us together in pursuing and strengthening our commitment to achieving this very important and worthwhile purpose.
We can be very grateful to Bruce Crowther from Oxfam in Garstang ,Lancashire,England who first thought of the idea in 2001 and promoted it in many other towns until it took a life of its own and has now spread to hundreds of towns throughout the UK and Europe. The first conference of European Fair trade Towns was held at the London Southbank University in 2006.The question is poised is this a grassroots movement today and can it bring change in the world.
Since fairtrade has grown up because of the initiative of the committed few at the beginning of Fair Trade and who are the pioneers of in working for justice for those producers and farmers who are cheated and exploited.These are the champions who work for justice in trade and human rights,they have put aside personal profit and self-seeking and have dedicated themselves to the cause of alleviating the dire poverty and hunger that still stalks our world.They are the grassroots people who made this movement grow and they are a people power for justice and human rights.
One billion are still hungry on this planet of plenty. It just so happens that the wealth is accumulated by the few while the many go without the basic needs of life. The champions of FairTrade are those who have challenged this inequality that causes much human suffering and death by hunger and disease. They can be given full credit for bringing about FairTrade and from humble beginnings led the way to the Fair Trade towns.
Many dedicated to fairTrade as a means to do justice and eradicate poverty during the past 50 years have been to the developing countries and have lived life among the grass roots.They returned to Europe and started fair trading and through this practice of justice ,solidarity and respect, they promoted the welfare of exploited people by trying to change the injustice in the world by bringing individuals, groups, shops owners and now entire tows into the movement for Fairtrade and social justice of the oppressed and the exploited People.
Having worked in the developing country of the Philippines for the past forty years and helped establish producer groups of handicraft artisans and small farmers based on Fair Trade criteria.This was the setting up of the Preda Fair trade organization. It began small but grew to establishing strong trading bonds with the Fair Trade imports of Europe.
The goal of Preda Development fair Trade is to help people to overcome poverty by their own efforts earning just wages and returns for their hard work and improving there communities through team and community self-help development projects.The success of fair trade relies greatly on the quality of the products, the just wages and conditions under which they are made. But equally it depends on the choice of committed consumers to act in a morally right way and choose to buy the fair trade products rather than the commercially supplied products.
It is fair trading that changes the world of the poor.The FairTrade towns are the home of the FairTrade Shops and World shops,organic and other stores that have chosen to sell the products. Many shops donate earnings to development projects in the needy communities of the developing world. This is their greater participation in development fair trade. And so I can say that the Fair Trade towns movement is a powerful force for change.
The goal of Preda developmental fair trading is to help reduce extreme poverty and destitution in the Philippines by bringing the fair prices structure ,paying dividends and delivering social development projects to the producers and the needy. It is Developmental Fair Trade and achieved by implementing the criteria of Fair Trade among the people we serve.We also have the goal of spreading these values among consumers and governments and to promote a greater understanding of Fair Trade and help expand Fair Trade in Asia and the European Union.
FairTrade is an important and indispensable form of development and poverty reduction. It is only last 17 October we observed “The International Day for the eradication of poverty”,this was declared by the UN General Assembly in resolution 47/196 of 1992. This year it has as its theme ‘Ending the Violence of Extreme Poverty: Promoting Empowerment and Building Peace’.
This is very relevant for all of us in FairTrade as that too is the goal ,purpose and hope of FairTrade practice. It is not for self enrichment nor limited to living a virtuous, ethical and responsible life. Those are admirable and beautiful goals and most desirable yet they ought to be the normal upright practice of everybody especially in doing commercial trading. Corporate responsibility should be the norm.
Developmental FairTrade is specific in overcoming injustice and making a better future for the poor and oppressed people and transforming society and the way people think about the people in the developing world. We don’t want people to buy Fair Trade products as an act of charity out of pity. But because they are quality, desirable and valuable products in themselves and also because they are fairly traded and not the product of exploitation or child labor.
We want to remove the kind of help and aid that is a charitable handout and replace it with the commercial empowerment of the poor and enable them to have a sustainable livelihood and be poor no more. FairTrade is the most effective way to fight poverty and empower the poor and to enable them to take economic control of their own lives and their families with dignity and self-respect.
I was in Korea in October for that day of commemoration for the eradication of poverty and to promote FairTrade and human rights.I witnessed a encouraging growth of Fair Trade and great interest among Koreans to understand it as the way to promote development. Mayor Park of Seoul was a social activist before entering politics and he established several NGOs including a chain of Fair Trade shops.He wants to make Seoul a fair trade city.
Here in Poznan it is greatly encouraging and inspiring to see the great strides that have been made to expand FairTrade since I was here two years ago. No minute no hour is wasted by our hosts in their drive to educate ,inspire and inform all sectors of society in Poznan, about the value and positive impact of Fair Trade in the developing world. The full speaking schedule planned for me here after the conference is proof of that. And I am sure we all admire and welcome such dedication and commitment of our hosts. The fact that this important conference is in Pozan indicates the extent of such driving inspiration.
The practice of the Preda fair Trading with craft workers began in 1975 (illustrated with photos) in the Philippines.We are in partnership with 25 different producer groups making a variety of crafts and give them help with product design, training, business advice, help them source raw materials,we provide 50% advance production payment and pay them a share of earned margins as dividends based on their volume of goods produced.
Preda FT also provides help in working with them in community development projects,renovating a village health center, distributing goats,helping them resist land grabbing and mining encroachment on the ancestral lands.
Preda FT gives medical insurance and conducts medical missions to remote communities. Also we promote their products and find them orders and markets but help them also to find local markets for their products so as not to be dependent on Preda Fair Trade
In the agriculture sector Preda FT buys mango fruit from small farmers at Fair Trade prices.They are helped to consolidate their harvest for delivery to the processing plant where they are paid the fair prevailing price which Preda policy sets at 17 Pesos a kilo .Some weeks after all deliveries the Preda producer liaison agriculturist or another Preda FT staffer visits them and pays them by cheque a dividend or bonus payment based on the number of kilos,this is an additional 2 pesos a kilo.
There is one additional pesos per kilo put aside to fund various community development projects.It could be a water system,for the village, educational supplies, computers for the scholars in an education assistance programme or bicycles with a side car for getting their children to school and as a taxi-bike.
We buy all sizes and shapes of the mango fruit that are not commercially saleable as table fresh fruit. This a big help to the farmers as most fruit is scratched, marked undersize and rejected by the commercial buyers. We have them dried under the most hygienic quality conditions and ISO standards in our ethical partners plant.
Preda FT has an association of small farmers that is steadily growing. They are farmers in the lowlands of Mindanao and the indigenous Aeta people of Luzon who are wild mango gatherers and collectors in the remote mountains. We are training the farmers and indigenous to grow and gather organic mangos . We promote organic growing and environmental protection We provide every year 2000, one meter tall grafted mango saplings for planting. We mobilize relief aid during and after typhoons and devastating floods such as housing and resettlement projects for displaced families.
The slicing and drying of the mangos is done in partnership with a professional plant that has the highest quality hygienic production. Hundreds of young people are employed at just wages and receive production bonuses. During the harvest additional part-time staff such as students are employed and can pay their college tuition fees as a result of the good earnings.
The Preda dried mangos and other dried fruit is unique in that we do not have added preservatives ,coloring or any chemical whatsoever We have a low sugar product and a dried mango that has no added sugar at all. Preda Developmental FT also has green dried mango which has a unique sour tangy taste and we have help for the coconut farmers as we use coconut in combination with dried mango.The processing plant buys discard coconut shells from the coconut farmers to burn for heating the water to dry their mangos.This is additional income for the farmers.
The waste skin of the mangos is turned into animal feed and the mango seed is planted in nurseries to provided saplings for the replanting and restoring denuded lands and hills. All water in the plant is recycled in the processing cycle. Fish stocks are in the huge tanks for employees to fish. Packaging is used to electronically test and scan the packages of packed dried fruit. Preda Ft trade also buys the smallest of the mangos fruit which is usually rejected as too small to slice and dry and they are made into Mango mash or mango puree.This is sold to FairTrade importers and made into mango juice and combined with oranges and apples for popular drinks .
Preda is also spending its earnings on social services to help victims of the worst forms of exploitation of vulnerable people and trafficking and human trade. Money is donated to the support of our campaign against the trafficking and sex slavery of children and women and child labor. We also support therapeutic recovery homes for victims of trafficking and sexual slavery and prosecute the offenders.
We have advocacy teams that promote Fair trade and Human rights and the rights of Indigenous people and small farmers and producers.Preda also campaigns for the rights of children and helps street children who are jailed for vagrancy, and suspected of crimes but never brought to trial and seldom convicted.In coordination with other supporting agencies the shelters and therapeutic homes are saving hundreds of children every year. Preventing trafficking from the rural villages,keeping the children in school and family preventing them from going to the city streets and the brothels is the greater task and challenge.Fair trade is one answer to that .
Developmental FairTrade is the most effective way to bring community development, self-reliance, sustainable livelihood,environmental protection and restoration.It restores the dignity and self-respect among the destitute and the poor.It provides opportunities to empower them so they can lift themselves out of poverty and live a life of modest prosperity and dignity.
