Business, Hot Products

Fair Trade Means Healthy Conscience

When you’re busy, busy, busy, trying to juggle the work/life balance successfully, and making sure the kids are OK, it’s tempting to let green values slip a little.  The supermarket is heaving, you’re tired, and frankly a TV soap and a glass of wine is beckoning. It’s easier to grab the first thing off the shelves and pretend not to notice.  What does it matter if your veggies and fruit aren’t Fairtrade.  Trust us.  It matters.

Buying Fairtrade produce is giving lifelines to small scale farmers, such as Angel Iniquez.  The 31 year old, grows bananas on 6 hectares of land with his family in Ecuador, and has been a member of a Fairtrade cooperative, called the El Guabo for four years.  He tells it as it was before the cooperative.

‘It was too hard here before we joined El Guabo.  We had no security of stability in terms of price or volume because we sold our bananas to intermediary buyers for whatever price they offered us,’ says Angel. ‘Sometimes, we would get good prices, say $6 or $7 a box, but then prices would fall as low as $0.80 to $1 a box.  We were too small to sell to the big multinational companies, they only want to buy much bigger volumes directly from producers.  We were never able to plan any projects to make improvements to the finca or to our home.’

What Fairtrade means to Small Farmers

In New Zealand we consume the staggering figure of 460 million bananas every year, and this huge banana trade has not always supported small farmers, such as Angel and his family.  Some banana workers earn as little as $3 a day, and have little leverage when it comes to setting prices.  They receive whatever the large multi-nationals and intermediaries want to pay.  Usually, the cheaper, the better.  While this may appear to be a good deal for those of us buying bananas, it is far from good for the producer.

The news however, is good.  New Zealand shoppers now have the opportunity to buy Fairtrade bananas, the first of which appeared in the supermarkets from March of this year.  They are now being stocked by Foodstuff, New World and Pak’n'Save supermarkets and independent grocers north of Taupo, Wellington region, and in Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown.

We Love to Shop Fairtrade in New Zealand

43% of people living in New Zealand, want to buy goods under the Fairtrade label, and actively search for them when shopping.  Fairtrade bananas is the first fresh produce to be offered to consumers.

They are being brought to New Zealand by ‘All Good‘, a locally owned New Zealand company, whose Company Director, Chris Morrison founded Phoenix Organics.

Now, ‘All Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) guidelines, ‘All Good‘ Fairtrade bananas are grown using rigorous environmental standards.  This means that only organic fertilizer is used to advance crops.  Herbicides are banned and no chemicals are permitted.

The organic fertiliser used to grow the bananas, is made from the by-products of local farms, with integrated pest management systems encouraging biodiversity.

‘All Good’s‘ aim is to achieve nationwide availability, so that El Guabo has the assurance of a long and sustainable partnership with it’s newest trading partners in the South Pacific.

Stockists

‘All Good Fairtrade Bananas‘ are currently stocked in many Foodstuffs stores, New World and Pakn’Save, and in independents north of Taupo and the Wellington region.  They are also available in select stores in Nelson, Christchurch, Motueka, Dunedin and Queenstown.

To find out more about Fairtrade bananas and where they are available, visit the All Good Bananas website.

The Importance of Buying Fairtrade

Hearing stories of small farmers like Angel Iniquez, who simply wants the best for his family, just as much as we want it for our own, must surely ring bells with consumers.  The more Fairtrade agreements we have with small producers like him, the better chance the world has of encouraging people, who aren’t fortunate to live in countries with relatively sound economic infrastructures, to be in control of their own destinies.

The ‘All Good Fairtrade Bananas‘ is helping to change their lives.  All we have to do to make sure this continues, is buy their produce.

Spread the easy green living love:

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