Aldi turbo charged Fair Trade
The discounter Aldi is regarded as leader in the German food trade. As soon as Aldi adjusts the prices for individual products, the competition follows within a few hours or even minutes. It is obvious that this market mechanism is not liked by every manufacturer, especially when the prices are lowered.
© TransFair e.V./Miriam Ersch
However, Claudia Brück, Deputy Managing Director of Transfair, would not mind if others stores copy Aldi in one case. Since last year Aldi is intensively engaged with the organization Transfair. Since then the discounter provides, among others, large amounts of bananas, coffee and roses with the famous green-blue-black Fair Trade label. And Claudia Brück hopes that other traders and stores will follow this example too.
The commitment of Aldi had a very significant impact on the annual balance sheet of Transfair. The Germans spent 827 million Euro in 2014 at the checkout for a better conscience reports the organization. This is 26 percent, or 173 million Euro, more than the year before. Thus, the Fair Trade movement recorded its strongest absolute growth since the establishment of Transfair in 1992.
Germany has some catching up to do
The role of Aldi can clearly be seen in the product group bananas. Sales volumes increased with an impressive 62 percent, to 51,200 metric tons. This means that eight percent of the bananas sold in Germany now carry the Fair Trade label. The Fair Trade label guarantees that small farmers and plantation workers receive fair prices and work under fair conditions.
This is a great success but according to Claudia Brück only a first step. "The potential is great," says the managing director and she refers to the development in other countries. While Germans spend around ten Euro per person on Fair Trade products, other countries like Britain or Switzerland spend 30 to 40 Euro per consumer.
Organic and Fair Trade go well together
Cooperation with other organizations is by no means alien to Transfair. The organic sector, for example, is an important partner. 79 percent of Fair Trade foods also had an organic label in 2014. This connection is still no automatism.
"Organic and Fairtrade fit together and in many areas grow together. Nevertheless, not every Fairtrade product is organic and vice versa", says Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, president of the Federation of the Organic Food Industry (BÖLW).
The numbers prove this, because with eight billion Euro in annual sales, the organic industry in Germany is ten times larger than the Fair Trade movement. The main reason is the geographical limitations of Transfair. "Our projects are exclusive to Africa, Asia and Latin America." We don’t support projects in Europe and the US.
"Children in Europe and the US can go to school, and there is a healthcare system," explains Claudia Brück. But she admits that even in Europe there are situations that aren’t desirable. "Of course there are gray areas," she admits. Perhaps the geographical classification will be checked again and reconsidered.
No fear for the label abundance
The organic trade and Fair Trade have often discussed the abundance of labels. The green-blue-black logo with a silhouette of a man waving is the most important label of the Fair Trade movement. But there are a variety of other labels that promises environmental-friendly, climate neutrality and fair trade. It starts with the MSC eco-label for sustainable fishing, and continues with FSC for timber and Utz for chocolate to Rainforest Alliance. Löwenstein, BÖLW representative, who sees a similar fluctuation in the organic sector, this variety of logos is not a problem. "The label landscape continues to be very colourful. But many labels are better than no label at all. Because in the end the labels are successful."
LÖwenstein has found that consumers in recent years not only think about the environment but there is real change of attitude: "The consumers see that their actions have an impact on the environment and other people, so they change their behaviour. And organic products play a part in that change just as Fair Trade products play a part in that change."
Source: www.welt.de