You have undoubtedly noticed them on supermarket shelves in the exotic fruit section: boxes of bright orange berries crowned by green-brown, papery sepals. Where do they come from and what is the story behind these ‘lanterns’? And where can we find organic and fair trade ones? We found answers to these questions in Colombia and Peru.
In regions where existing ecosystems suffer from human pressure, tourism can provide part of the solution.
Inspired by successful experiences elsewhere in the world, the Honeyguide Foundation, with the financial assistance of the Trade for Development Centre, supports the development of sustainable tourism in the north of Tanzania. The Maasai population is given an extra financial incentive to protect its natural environment.
Burundi, a small Central African country, is one of the poorest countries in the world. The coffee sector is a major economic player since it generates more than half of Burundi’s export revenues. It is also the main source of revenue for almost 750,000 families. The privatisation made coffee growers join forces in cooperatives and build their own washing stations.
The TDC supports the Consortium of Coffee Growers Cooperatives COCOCA and two of iets members to allow producers to obtain a larger share of the added value.
To make global food production more sustainable, more and more scientists advocate organic agriculture. Trade for Development Centre (TDC) grants financial support to some ten projects that have made this choice.
Chocolate is everywhere, but this widespread availability sharply contrasts with the extreme poverty of cocoa farmers which undermines the future of the whole sector. The sector agrees on that bleak outlook.
But solutions and strategies diverge. At least the ISO/CEN process has brought all stakeholders around the table.
Beekeepers and weavers in Tanzania, coffee growers and the craft women in Uganda: they all share their motivation and pride about the products they make. But they hardly know which consumers are willing to pay a fair price for their products.
The TDC supports the Tighanimine women’s cooperative which has produced fair trade argan oil in South Morocco since 2010. There is huge demand for this oil, not only as a miraculous ingredient for cosmetics, but also as a flavour for cooking. The TDC sent a reporter to Morocco to take a look behind the scenes of the production process and the lives of the workers, all of which are Berber women.
Every year, millions of kilos of Puro Fairtrade Coffee are sold around the world. For CEO Frans Van Tilborg, entrepreneurship does not only mean making a profit, but also caring about people and the planet. Part of Puro’s turnover is therefore spent on buying portions of endangered rainforest, with the aim of protecting it in the long term. Since its launch ten years ago, Puro has already acquired an area of equatorial forest equivalent to more than 10,000 football pitches.
Last year, more than 22 thousand tonnes of sugar products left the Candico factory in Merksem, near Antwerp. Some 50% of them were Fairtrade-labelled. The factory, which employs 78 people, packs cane sugar imported via the port of Antwerp; it also produces candy sugar.
How many employers choose sustainable products on the work floor? This opinion poll carried out by ProFacts for the Trade for Development Centre shows that employers are less willing to buy fair or sustainable products than individual consumers: 33% of employers purchase sustainable products compared to 54% of consumers.
