As the CEO of the Fairtrade India Project, Abhishek Jani leads a team responsible for building a sustainable and ethical platform for consumers, businesses and farmer organisations in India. Part of the Fairtrade International network, Fairtrade India enables small-holder farmer organisations to commit to better social, economic and environmentally sustainable practices.
Fairtrade India facilitates more remunerative and fairer market linkages for these farmer organisations across varied categories, including F&B, FMCG products and fashion. Fairtrade India also spreads awareness about sustainability, UN SDGs, and Fairtrade amongst citizens, institutions, businesses and other stakeholders. By conducting annual campaigns, programmes with schools, universities and workplaces, and outreach through social and traditional media, Fairtrade India hopes to make citizens more aware of and engaged with responsible and sustainable consumption.
Prior to joining the Fairtrade India project, Abhishek headed Navdanya’s Organic and Fairtrade marketing division where he was mentored by Dr Vandana Shiva for creating sustainable food and fashion choices. Recently Indian Terrain Fashions became India’s first high street brand to launch a Fairtrade collection, an important milestone for the Fairtrade movement in India. In an exclusive interview with The Organic Magazine, Abhishek speaks about the project’s vision and the way ahead.
What is the vision behind Fair Trade? How did it start and how has the journey been so far?
Fairtrade International is a global movement with the main aim that small farmers and agricultural workers in the developing countries are able to earn a sustainable livelihood fulfil their potential and have more control over their lives and futures. We do this by creating an alternate framework for trade which is based on principles of justice, human rights and equality.
Small holder farmers are responsible for providing food to most of the world but unfortunately due to institutional, social and economic issues, they are unable to access the markets on favourable terms. They face a lot of challenges in terms of access to finance, access to infrastructure, and even proper access markets. due to which they are held back. When they do access markets they face a lot of volatility in the market for example the price of arabica coffee just last year was at a 13 year low, similarly few years back the price of rice had plummeted. For both both food crop and cash crop, the prices are very volatile and this is largely due to the global speculation, and imperfections in the markets which do not consider factors like what is the cost going into producing the crop by the farmers. Therefore, due to all these factors the farmers are unable to earn a sustainable amount.
Fairtrade has the farmer at the heart of the movement. The Fairtrade movement started about 30 years ago with the realisation that the markets can be volatile and the market prices can be exploitative for the vulnerable producers. The movement started off with the main aim of connecting farmers to consumers who were driven by more ethical and sustainability considerations and were willing to pay the farmers a fair price- at least covering their cost of production.
So we at Fairtrade really mean it when we say that we have farmers at the heart of of our movement. We are one of the few organisations where 50% of the decision making rests with producer organisations including farmers from India.. The other 50% is made up of National Fairtrade Organisations who represent multiple stakeholders from consumers to education institutions, markets and civil society. These are basically those organisations that are working with businesses, consumers and institutions to make them aware of the challenges faced by the farmers in agriculture and the environmental concerns, what are the other issues that go behind producing our food and fashion and also convince businesses to source produce on a more sustainable term.
Fairtrade’s beginning in India?
Initially Fairtrade network was focussed on linking farmer and producer organisations to international markets which committed to paying them a better price on Fairtrade terms. With the rise of the Indian middle class and India becoming an economic superpower, we realised it was important that our urban populations also realise the role they play in influencing what happens in the farmlands. So the idea to start Fairtrade India was that that we connect to the urban population here and talk to them about the need for sustainable consumption and explain to them what is happening in the farming community which is just 100 to 200 km away from where they are living. Fairtrade India therefore started with the objective of expanding a Fair and Sustainable market for our farmers within India and also building a sustainable and ethical consumer movement which supported better and non-exploitative farming practices. We hope from this citizen’s movement people find ways where they can contribute to sustainable living and get connected to the farmers.. Formally, the Fairtrade India project has been set up through an MoU between Fairtrade International and Centre for Social Market. Both are not for profit organisations.
How many entities are certified by Fairtrade India?
There are 3 ways the organisations can join the Fairtrade system. Firstly, the certification of farmer organisations and bodies. In India we are working with about 104 Fairtrade Certified producer organisations and these include farmer FPOs and joint bodies of workers and management in plantations. In terms of businesses, they could be traders or manufacturers – we are working in India with more than 300 plus businesses. The third category is the brands we are working within India who are putting the Fairtrade Label on their products and selling to consumers. There are about 20 brands in India with whom we work with at the moment.
What is the awareness of Fairtrade India in the country? Both from the consumers and the business and what role the govt can play to change the scenario for the better?
Working as a Not-For-Profit organisation we have limited resources. However, In 2018 we were fortunate to be selected for a grant from the European Union under their SWITCH Asia programme which focusses on promoting United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 on Sustainable Consumption & Production. With limited resources, creating awareness was very targeted from the start and the main aim was to make the urban population of the country aware and conscious about their consumption habits. Many urban consumers have the capacity to spend more mindfully but it is not happening systematically or as a part of the mainstream. We are now looking at urban regions like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai where we are focusing on creating awareness about sustainable consumption and Fairtrade. We did some market research, which showed our Fairtrade Label recognition to the urban SEC A population to be around 10 to 15 %, so this segment of the population could recognise that it was the Fairtrade logo or at least could relate that it was to do something with farmer’s rights. This showed that our awareness campaigns have started to take effect. This has grown compared to the previous year’s campaign.
This could also be because a growing number of people are getting conscious about from where their food is coming – the farm to fork movement is picking up in India rapidly. One of the side effects of Covid-19 has been that people are going back to their roots and finding sustainable ways to live their lives. The pandemic has taught people that they have to build a resilient society. They cannot just cater to some and forget about the rest. Just like how the doctors and nurses are important on the frontline during this pandemic, the farmers also play a very important role in terms of growing food and making it reach the people. Covid-19 has shown people that farmers are also of utmost importance and that if there is a pandemic or any other similar worldwide issue, farmers still have to work and the crops need to be harvested or else they will get destroyed and then this will lead to a national food scarcity..
So consumers are getting more aware and hopefully would support initiatives like our to ensure that farmers earn not just a minimum wage, but that there should be a living wage or a living income for them- to lead a life of dignity rather than just fulfil their calorific quota. A lot of things should be considered from the farmer’s point of view while purchasing food and agricultural products and there should be limited bargaining as the farmers incur a lot of cost and challenges while producing our food.
How difficult is it to get a Fairtrade seal in India because there is a lot of myth about the certifications and the cost associated with it which is the reason why many businesses don’t want to go ahead with it?
There are two parts to this, one is the price around what the consumers pay and then one is the price paid by the businesses for putting the Fairtrade Mark on their products.
From the consumer point of view, initially we had a lot of imported products which had the Fairtrade Label. These were premium products and a little expensive as there was a lot of import duties imposed on them. But over the last five-six years we have been able to get the Fairtrade Label on a number of Indian products, around hundred food products have the Fairtrade mark in the Indian market. And more than a thousand fashion SKUs which carry a Fairtrade Label, including recently Indian Terrain Fashions.
Of course, there are still some labels that are premium but that is the business strategy or due to the supply chains of those brands. At the same time, we have the brands like Paperboat which has launched a chikki (which uses Fairtrade peanuts) that is selling at a price point of Rs 10. Also Huetrap a fashion brand that sells T-shirts on Myntra, etc for a reasonably priced Rs 500-700 bracket. There is now a wide range of Fairtrade fashion products from yoga wear by Soul Space to great styles from No Nasties, from socks from Balenzia to Sustainable denim from Aizome and even Fairtrade footballs from Indpro. In food we have organic teas- like Oothu and Makaibari, spices from Trubio and even chocolates with the Fairtrade label from Pascati Chocolates. So we are creating an ecosystem of Fairtrade products that are easily accessible across multiple price points.
In terms of the businesses, there is a cost involved for certification but it is based on the kind of engagement the businesses would like to do and the scale of the business. For example, if you are a start-up and you want to start a product line with the Fairtrade Mark and your turnover is less than Rs 15 crore per annum then you can apply for the small licensee certification for Rs 1.5 lakh for 3 years.
Do you have a different Fairtrade certification for businesses and for farmer organisations/associations?
Yes, there are different certifications for both. We try to minimise the cost for the farmer certification as much as we can for farmer organisations/cooperatives depending on the number of members but the businesses will have to bear the full cost. There are also a wider range of sustainability factors that we work on at the farm levels covering environmental, social and economic parameters.
What is the future roadmap for Fairtrade in India?
We are working on different strategies. In every country where we are active, we always see ourselves as working to create an ecosystem. We are a movement, and are a not for profit network we are more motivated by the mission. Our mission is to create more sustainable agricultural value chains through a collaboration between producer organisations, businesses and consumers. In terms of our future priorities we are working a lot with the youth to create awareness about the challenges, the 17 SDGs outlined by the UN. We are working with schools, universities also looking to work with corporates/offices to create a citizen’s movement where they can choose to make their cities Smart and Sustainable. To ensure that hotels/restaurants serve sustainable products/ingredients that educational institutions are teaching about sustainability ensuring that their local government is supporting sustainability in every way you can. So one day maybe we can have a 100% Fairtrade city, town or village in India.. We hope to create a business movement that believes in non-exploitative sourcing and a consumer movement where people are willing to spend on products that match their values within reason.
Fairtrade has to become mainstream. So more and more farmers can benefit from it. We are currently just working with about 1.4 lakh farmers and plantation workers in India. That’s just a drop in the ocean.
Good job! Much needed.