Tag: fairtrade

Ecuadorian Fairtrade cooperatives trained to champion quality at Cacao of Excellence R&D lab

Stuart Mitchell

The Cacao of Excellence Programme, in partnership with Fairtrade International and the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers (CLAC), is pleased to announce the successful completion of a scientific visit and training session aimed at enhancing the cocoa quality and market positioning of Ecuadorian Fairtrade cocoa cooperatives. The 10-day training, held from 19 February to 1 March 2024, at the Cacao of Excellence R&D Laboratory and Training Centre in Rome, Italy, saw the participation of key members from three prominent cooperatives: Fortaleza del Valle,…

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Fairtrade partners with Global Coalition for Social Justice

Stuart Mitchell

Recently on the World Day of Social Justice, Fairtrade International is pleased to announce its partnership in the Global Coalition for Social Justice, an initiative of the International Labour Organization. The Global Coalition for Social Justice aims to intensify collective efforts to urgently address social justice deficits and to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Decent Work Agenda. “This is an excellent opportunity to share with others our practices to improve the lives of small-scale farmers and workers, as well…

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Fairtrade Coffee Standard update expands deforestation prevention

Stuart Mitchell

In an effort to reduce environmental degradation, Fairtrade has updated its Coffee Standard requiring certified producers and traders (payers and conveyers) to strengthen deforestation prevention, monitoring, and mitigation. The update, approved by the Fairtrade Standards Committee, meets and in some areas exceeds the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) that went into effect in June 2023. In particular, the updated Fairtrade Coffee Standard sets the deforestation cut-off date at 1 January 2014, which means that no coffee should come from land deforested after that point. It also requires that all farms…

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New study confirms Fairtrade roses from Kenya have smaller environmental footprint

Stuart Mitchell

Fairtrade roses from Kenya have a smaller environmental footprint when compared to roses produced in Holland, even when factoring in transport to Europe, according to a recently released report. The report, titled Life Cycle Assessment Cut Roses, found that Fairtrade cut roses from Kenya – whether transported to Switzerland by air or sea – have a lower impact across all the environmental areas analysed, including cumulative energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions, and freshwater eutrophication, a pollution process where lakes or streams become over-rich in plant nutrients. For the Dutch roses,…

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New Fairtrade initiative will help UK grocery retailers collaborate on sustainability in supply chains

Stuart Mitchell

A new sustainability initiative created by the Fairtrade Foundation has become the first of its kind in the UK to go through the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) new open-door policy for green agreements between businesses. Published recently, the CMA’s inaugural informal guidance looks at Fairtrade Foundation’s new Shared Impact model, which aims to drive collaboration within the UK grocery sector by bringing retailers together to pool their new Fairtrade sourcing commitments to a targeted group of farming cooperatives. Given that Shared Impact is designed to boost sustainability through sector…

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