Nearly 25 years after the fall of the Wall and the rushed transition to a free market economy, fair trade products are gradually finding their way to consumers in Eastern Europe. Step by step, with limited resources but with great enthusiasm, an ever-increasing group of activists is working on the path ahead.
Over the last few decades, palm oil has steadily been on the rise and worldwide it has become the most important vegetable oil. NGOS and environmental activists are very worried. For many years tropical forests have been destroyed at an alarming rate to make room for oil palm plantations. Can this orange gold be sustainably cultivated?
Coffee culture in South Kivu has been long neglected because of the lasting conflict in East Congo, but in recent years new dynamics have emerged. With the support of NGOs, fair trade organisations and BTC’s Trade for Development Centre two cooperatives enthusiastically pave the road. Read the project sheet SOPACDI Read the project sheet RAEK […]
This study carried out by IPSOS in the name of the Trade for Development Centre (TDC) aims to give an overview of the availability of sustainable banana, cocoa, coffee and tea products in the assortments of major Belgian supermarkets. The 4 product categories (bananas – coffee – tea – cocoa) were chosen as the focus for this research by TDC, because these are tropical commodities produced in the South and because these are core categories for the labels which are internationally recognized as sustainable labels.
Fair Trade USA recently left Fairtrade International, the world’s leading fair trade federation to launch its own initiative. Small producers in Latin America have created their own certification label in response to the opening of the Fairtrade Max Havelaar label to large plantations. Tensions are increasingly flaring within a movement that has different development visions and approaches to fair trade. Will it fall apart?
After a decade of euphoric growth, the sale of fair trade products in several European countries is an important factor in time. The economic crisis has passed and the different types of players are often forced to adapt and adjust their strategies.
The main themes of the Rio+20 international conference, which was held in the Brazilian economic capital June 20th to 22nd, 2012, are the implementation of the “Green Economy” and the global governance of sustainable development. In a time when the world is experiencing an extremely serious financial crisis, the concept of a green economy combining growth with environmental imperatives is raising many questions.
For 2012 the UN focuses on cooperatives “because cooperative enterprises contribute to reducing poverty for many families and communities”.
Members of cooperatives undertake voluntarily to get associated and better pool their individual resources.
Since November 2011 stevia may be produced and sold in Europe. Finally… because this natural sweetener, which has been consumed in South America for centuries, has a high nutritional value and is 100% natural and safe. Because of its assets Stevia attracted the attention of multinationals who started investing massively in the crop. Fair trade and organic farming are tools that can help traditional stevia producers to take advantage of the growing demand for stevia.
The tensions between Israel and Palestine have recently culminated. Again they were drawn into the logic of war. Yet, in daily life there are Israelis and Palestinians who work together in fair trade projects to achieve closer relations between their communities.
