Fair Trade: 2006-07 FLO Annual Report
Original report: FLO Annual Reports page
My super custom highlighted report: Highlighted Annual Report
Key topics of the report:
- FLO managing director, Luuk Zonneveld, leaves on good terms, praising the organization’s triumphs and hoping for continued success.
- Three new producer networks (CLAC, AFN, NAP) join FLO in co-ownership, allowing the producers to better voice themselves in the democratic infrastructure of the Fair Trade processes.
- Fair Trade Bananas, Coffee and Cotton meet booming markets.
The report introduces many of the global economic problems coffee producers have faced and have been able to prevail against due to the saving grace of Fair Trade.
In 2001 and 2002, during the world coffee crises, our situation was desperate. We received between 20-25 dollars per quintal (quintal = 100 pounds, 25 US$ per quintal = 0, 25 US$/lb) … many of the Ecuadorian coffee producers left. We did not have any other choice but to abandon the coffee culture. We are currently selling 80 % of our total coffee production under Fairtrade terms. For our Fairtrade organic coffee we are receiving 139 US$ the quintal and 119US$ the quintal for our conventional Fairtrade coffee. But more important than the higher prices is the stability that Fairtrade brings. We are not as vulnerable to market volatility as we used to be.
–Valentín Chinchay, the President of FAPECAFES
There’s a lot of other empowering and joyous achievement to be read: Fair Trade Towns rising in parts of Europe and the growth of desire for Fair Trade bananas in the global market being two particulars. The report gives you multiple testimonials of some of the social and economical improvements of Third World producing and farming societies that result from the Fair Trade premiums. It’s all good stuff, so check it out.