DEG promotes fair trade on the Philippines

DEG fosters the establishment of a Fair Trade organisation for agricultural products. The project aims at creating a domestic market for fairly traded foodstuffs.

Fair Trade standards are a guarantee for producers, mostly smallholders in developing countries, to access cross-regional markets and foster long-term and direct trading relations. Fair trade standards help the farmers support their villages and their families more effectively and improve their living and working conditions. Fair trade-certified farmers’ cooperatives and plantations are guaranteed a steady income.

In Germany the concept has done well: The sales of fairly traded foodstuff has increased enormously during the last ten years. In the producing countries, however, the positive impacts which fair trade goods have on the farmers’ lives are hardly known – the Philippines being no exception. The consumers perceive fairly traded products as too expensive. The majority of the still small amount of fairly produced goods is designated for exportation.

FLO-CERT Certification of Social-Economic Development GmbH andFairtrade Labelling Organizations International e.V. are now going to establish a local FairTrade Marketing Organisation with the support of DEG.

On the one hand, they will organize extensive trainings for smallholders and cooperatives in the regions of Negros, Zentral Visayas and Mindanao aiming at installing the principles of fair trade. On the other, the Organisation will focus on increasing the Filipinos’ acceptance for fair trade and on creating a domestic market. In this context, it is important to convey that those products do not necessarily have to be more expensive than others and that they offer an additional benefit. Farmers, retail sellers and consumers are the target groups; at the same time the organization wishes to win institutional partners who support the idea. In the long term, the issue of whether the products can be exported throughout Asia will be looked into.

DEG, as one of the three official partners, implements the special programme develoPPP.de of the Federal German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). develoPPP.de targets companies that invest in developing and emerging countries and are seeking ways to shape their corporate commitment in the long term. BMZ provides up to EUR 200,000 and a maximum of 50% of the project cost out of public funds. These development partnerships with the private sector may last up to a maximum of three years and cover a wide variety of areas and topics. DEG assists the company in all phases of the develoPPP.de project by competent and country-specific advice.