Fair Trade: Notes from Mozambique

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Posted by Admin

Guerrilla Beauty’s mission is to get the real stories – so when your admin had the opportunity to meet a farmer from Mozambique, I jumped at the chance!

It’s quite easy to be sceptical about fair trade products. Just how much do these farmers get paid? Has it actually made any difference to their lives? Or is it a publicity stunt by big business to prevent us buying from independent cooperatives?

As part of Fair Trade Fortnight, Isabel Antonio has been giving presentations across the south-west (of England) about her experiences and the impact of fair trade on her community. Isabel is a cashew nut farmer, and most of the world’s cashew nuts come from the part of Mozambique where she lives. Cashew nuts are central to her community: they use the nuts themselves as well as selling them, and produce wine, juice and pepper from the fruit of the cashew tree. Isabel’s community also produce peanuts and small beans.

Mozambique is one of Africa’s poorest countries, and was totally dependent on foreign aid state when it emerged from the civil war in the early 1990s [BBC]. The Cashew nut industry collapsed in 2000-2001, with critics directly blaming the World Bank and IMF [allAfrica] However, Mozambique has made significant economic and social progress since then.

Fair trade had clearly made a huge difference to the lives of everyone in Isabel’s community. Not only are farmers guaranteed a fair price for their products (set by a ‘forum‘), but they receive help from the fair-trade organisation (in this case Ikuru). Farmers are taught how to farm, are given help with constructing new houses, and even advised on what to feed the children (preparing maize soup instead of water). Isabel was justifiably proud of the photographs of new houses in her village with zinc roofing, doors, beds and utilities: the village simply didn’t have these things before fair trade. And she was pleased to show photographs of children in the village, noting that children nowadays are fatter, and learn to walk much sooner than they used to!

Villagers were spending money on goods such as plastic chairs and bicycles. The latter is a tremendous development, making travelling times shorter and giving women their independence.

The advancement of women was particularly interesting. A family used to have a patch of land with their house. Under fair trade, it is people who have land, which means that a woman can own her own plot of land separate to her husband. Women are trading independently, and can keep the money they earn. The men of the village have been supportive of this, because it alleviates the stress of being responsible for the family: if the wife wants salt or rice, she can go out and buy it herself! Many women also take evening classes, and are becoming more educated. A woman’s life is still hard though, with women farming from 5am – 8am and then returning home to look after the family.

The village has a strong community spirit. All of the extra money is given to a nominated person in the village, like a bank. This money can then be used for emergencies, such as when a cyclone ruined the plantations in 2008 (although the fair trade forum were able to give some money and support to communities who were struggling after the cyclone). Decisions are made by community meetings.

The community is not completely reliant on foreign trade. On Thursdays there is a fair to buy and sell within the community. People come from the surrounding areas to buy the fruit wine produced from the cashew fruit.

So what do the fair trade companies like Ikuru get in return for all of this? The community must pay for a license to be fair trade – in return, they expect to be given the right money for the produce. At the moment, this situation is working well for Isobel’s community, since they have far more with fair trade than they did before. In fact, new families are coming to join their community all the time. Perhaps you could speculate that fair trade is open to exploitation in the future, but as communities like Isabel’s become more wealthy and educated, they will become better equipped to deal with any future problems.

Crucially, IKURU “is a Mozambique owned, agri-trading, processing and exporting Company. The company was founded in 2003 with initial investments from Farmers Associations. There are also investments by ethical investors (GAPI – a Mozambique public/private financial institution and Oxfam Novib – Netherlands)” [ Ikuru]. This means that money is largely staying in (and improving the economy of) Mozambique, and the enterprise is run for the benefits of the farmers it represents. Not all fair trade organisations can boast this: the controversial food giant Nestle has been granted fair trade status, despite being subject to an international boycott for selling powdered baby milk in less developed countries [BBC].

In addition, different fair trade certifying bodies operate differently. The Rainforest Alliance (unlike the Fairtrade Foundation) do not charge for a license, but do not guarantee a minimum price for produce either [an excellent discussion is reported here]. The moral is to select your fair trade products carefully from suppliers you trust, rather than just looking for the fair trade icon. Which makes shopping more difficult, and rather undermines the point of the fair trade icon. We can only hope that if companies like Nestle have recognised that fair trade is good for business, their business practises will follow suit.

A final thought. Your admin comes from a town in the north of England where plastic chairs and bicycles are manufactured. So, when you buy fair trade you not only support Isabel’s community, but you support Britain too!