February 2010

The cooperative “Women of Marrakech” in Morocco

The Trade for Development Centre supports this project

Logo Femmes de Marrakech.JPG The cooperative "Les Femmes de Marrakech" (Women of Marrakech) was founded in 1991, when an American designer decided to sell the clothing workshop that she had started a few years earlier in Morocco. The workers started a company of their own and bought the business with a credit. Today, the cooperative has nine members who benefit from a fixed monthly salary and it regularly relies on some thirty women who do extra work at home.

Moroccan cooperatives have witnessed considerable development over the last few years, both in quality and quantity. However, most of them have difficulty with marketing their products, mainly because of isolation, the absence of a marketing strategy as well as poor quality. This situation is abused by intermediaries who buy these products (carpets, embroidery, sculptures and oils, among other products) for derisory prices and resell them afterwards with a big profit.

[ Read more ]

The Fair Trade Sustainability Alliance (FTSA)

The Fair Trade Sustainability Alliance (FTSA) is a non-profit organization specializing in fair trade and accountable, sustainable community development. The Alliance was established in 2007 to help advance the fair trade movement and sustainable community development around the world. Having gone though several development phases, FTSA offers "Preliminary Accreditation" for organic certifiers since July 1, 2009. Preliminary Accreditation gives certifiers the right to inspect and certify farms and processors under our standard.

[ More info: www.fairtsa.org ]

Does 'Fair Trade' help those who harvest tea?

As part of the International Human Rights Film Series, the Asia Institute put on a screening and discussion of an award-winning 2008 documentary, "The Bitter Taste of Tea," that takes a skeptical view of the fair trade movement's ability to protect laborers within this global industry. Listen to scholars, fair trade advocates and audience members delve into the issues in this audio podcast.

[ More info: UCLA Asia Institute ]

35 Million Hectares of Organic Agricultural Land World-wide

FiBL and IFOAM present new facts and figures about Organic Agriculture world-wide at the BioFach World Organic Trade Fair 2010 in Nuremberg, Germany.

35 million hectares of agricultural land are certified according to organic standards (data as at the end of 2008). "Compared to the 2007 data, almost three million hectares more were reported," says Helga Willer of FiBL. "Growth was strongest in Latin America and Europe." There are almost 1.4 million organic producers.

"That is good news," states Markus Arbenz, IFOAM's Executive Director. "The markets world-wide continue to demand more organic produce despite the economic turbulence." Referring to the growth of organic agriculture in the South, he adds, "We particularly welcome smallholders from developing countries into the organic movement. We have learned in recent years that conversion to organic agriculture supports food security, climate change adaptation, and biodiversity conservation."

Book info
Helga Willer and Lukas Kilcher (Editors) (2010): The World of Organic Agriculture - Statistics and Emerging Trends 2010. IFOAM, Bonn, and FiBL, Frick
Printed copies (50 Euros + postage) of The World of Organic Agriculture can be ordered from FiBL and IFOAM at shop.fibl.org and www.ifoam.org
ISBN 978-3-940946-67-6 (IFOAM) and 978-3-03736-180-1 (FiBL)
Graphs and data sets (Excel) will be available at www.organic-world.net starting in mid-March.