MDI VIETNAM wins first South-South BE FAIR Award

The Award

On October 6th 2009, the Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation, Charles Michel, rewarded the Vietnamese organisation MDI (International Marketing Development and Investment) as best initiative for the development of South-South Fair Trade. The newly established award wants to emphasize and promote the development of local and regional marketing of fair trade products (or fair trade services, like tourism) in developing countries.

23 organisations from 16 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America participated in the contest. Apart from MDI, 4 other candidates made it to the shortlist: Community Friendly Movement (India), Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa, Fairtrade Producer Society (Ghana) and Gourmet Gardens (Uganda).

The members of the jury chose MDI as winner of the Award for the direct impact MDI’s work has on the lives of smallholder farmer groups, mainly women of ethnic minority groups in North-Vietnam and for the dynamism MDI shows to develop FT markets in the South. MDI has developed the first fair trade certified South-owned brand “Betterday”, sold in Vietnam and other Asian markets, and actively raises awareness of Fair Trade in Vietnam.

MDI’s story

MDI was born of the minds of two experienced development workers. After running numerous development projects, Minh Tuyet Nguyen and Dominic Smith were desperate to bring down the vicious circle of poverty that they had been trying to fight all these years. In 2007 they decided to launch a social entrepreneurial company to commercialise tea according to Fair Trade principles. They left for the mountains and started to work with local communities who live a hard and isolated life. They built their trust, helped them in organising themselves, showing how to collect the best tealeaves and how to process these into quality tea. Today, some 2 years later, MDI counts 20 dedicated staff and works with 1000 farmer families whose products are exported to Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Hong Kong, Japan.

But they also insist on having their product range (that now includes coffee and cashew nuts) available to consumers in Vietnam and other developing countries: “Everyone deserves access to good quality and socially responsible products”, comments Dominic Smith. Through competitive marketing of their attractive brand, “Betterday” in the Asian market (“better quality, better health - all products are produced organically - and better for society”) they challenge the common idea that Fair Trade would only appeal to the 1 billion people in the well-off Global North.

Asked about MDI’s ultimate goal, Dominic Smith comments: “We want to increase the recognition of the products that we produce with our farmer partners as being of the highest quality, even though they are produced by people from a less-developed country”, while he launches a video. We travel to the steep mountains in the North of Vietnam, habitat of the Mong population, marginalized since ancient times. Women hold a package of “Betterday” tea in their solid hands and smile: The product of their labour can now be found on supermarket shelves in Europe, Asia and Vietnam. They look proud, in a humble way. And they breathe hope. For a better life.