What are the benefits for producers and consumers in combining organic farming and Fairtrade? We discussed it at a round table organised by Alce Nero, held on 14 December in Milan.
"A fair breakfast". The name of the round table held on 14 December in Milan expresses our need to nourish ourselves healthily in order to face each day, and our desire to do so in full respect of people and territories. This is what emerged from the meeting, moderated by LifeGate, which brought together Fairtrade Italia, the organic brand Alce Nero and two bloggers covering food and travel, around a shared theme: the beneficial synergies between the fair trade supply chain and that of organic farming.
It all began with a good breakfast. Indeed, the table at which the participants sat was enriched by delicious dishes made with Alce Nero products, organic and Fairtrade certified, such as the ring cake with bananas, walnuts and chocolate that food blogger Lidia Forvilesi of Non solo food prepared during the event in the Fusillo lab kitchen, where it was held. The conversation opened precisely on the value of breakfast — not only nutritional but also social — as highlighted by moderator Tommaso Perrone, editor-in-chief of LifeGate. According to Forvilesi, this meal should be rich and unhurried, beginning with care and attention in the choice of ingredients.
The history of fair trade is also linked to an important starting point, as Benedetta Frare, communications manager of Fairtrade Italia, recounted. It began with a meeting among a group of campesinos (farmers) in the state of Oaxaca, in Mexico, at the end of the 1970s. These farmers were victims of the so-called coyotes, middlemen who bought coffee from growers and paid them a pittance only once the goods had been sold to industrialised markets. Thanks in part to the intervention of priest Frans van der Hoff, considered the founder of fair trade, the idea was born for producers to deal directly with importers in order to sell the fruits of their labour to developed countries.
"The model spread like wildfire," Frare explained, contextualising the role of Fairtrade — a certification that guarantees compliance with fair trade principles — as that of a link between farmers and companies such as Alce Nero that work directly with them. Whilst Fairtrade has been translated into Italian as commercio equo e solidale, "the solidale (solidarity) part does not actually exist: it is always a form of trade based on supply and demand, but also on the satisfaction of all actors." Fairtrade therefore guarantees a minimum price for products, as well as an economic premium that farmers manage themselves democratically, and the fair price — which varies according to location and "must cover production costs and guarantee a decent income" — is set together with the growers, Frare specifies.
It was precisely the producers who took centre stage at the A fair breakfast round table. Chiara Marzaduri, communications manager of Alce Nero, described the company's economic model, based on fair remuneration for raw materials and its rootedness in rural life — to the extent that its members are the farmers themselves, such as the 14,000 members of the Cooperativas Sin Fronteras organisation, South American growers of Fairtrade-certified cocoa, sugar and coffee under the Alce Nero brand. The goal is to "overturn the model whereby farmers are the last link in the chain," Marzaduri stressed.
Discussion turned to the fact that, unfortunately, when we buy a food product we often do so without awareness or recognition of the people behind it. And this disconnect from producers means that a particularly low price, for example, is not questioned: in reality, "perhaps we don't pay it at the till, but the environmental and social cost — we do," Marzaduri pointed out. A point also dwelt upon by travel blogger Federica di Nardo, who explained how conscious choices must be made even as tourists. First and foremost, by exploring culinary traditions because "food is one of the aspects that highlights the culture of a place," and doing so "by favouring small producers and eating at markets."
Certifications such as organic and Fairtrade guarantee a holistic approach to sustainability — one that is environmental as well as social and economic. And in the spread of these realities, consumer awareness plays an important role, starting with the ability to read labels correctly. Frare noted that fair trade still has low recognition in Italy, while at the same time Paola Munforte, product manager at Alce Nero, reported that Fairtrade products account for a significant share of the company's total sales. Precisely in order to highlight "the origin of the raw material, the story of how it comes to be a finished product," the organic brand has created a narrative label for its products, Munforte explains.
Greater transparency in communicating the characteristics of products helps consumers become more aware — a factor that has contributed to the growth of Fairtrade over the years: this market is no longer confined to specialist shops but has reached the world of large-scale retail as well. A growth that has run in parallel with that of organics. Perrone highlighted the findings of the 2018 Sustainable Lifestyle Observatory, the LifeGate and Eumetra Monterosa survey, according to which more than half of Italians are willing to pay more for organic products, which are regularly consumed by one fifth of the population. But the real paradigm shift would come if "the labelled food were not the organic kind but the one made with chemicals," Marzaduri specifies, or the product of trade based on exploitation, Frare adds. That is, if the agricultural and economic models of organics and fair trade were not a niche but the norm.
