October 2009

MDI VIETNAM wins first South-South BE FAIR 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.

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Belgian fair trade honey awarded international prize

A newly developed unifloral honey won a bronze medal at the Apimondia congress that took place from 16 to 19 September in Montpellier in the south of France.

The Belgian NGO Miel Maya Honing has been working since 2006 towards the development of new honey varieties: unifloral or mixed blossom honey, like cafetal (coffee blossom). The project is implemented by the Mexican research institute Ecosur in collaboration with fair trade honey producers in Mexico and Guatemala; it is funded for the largest part by the Trade for Development Centre of Belgian Technical Cooperation.

With the development of new special honey varieties Miel Maya Honing wants to create added value for poor honey producers in Latin America. Until now producers sold their honey as ordinary mixed blossom honey, even though there is a potential in the local bee flora for specific honey varieties. This situation can be compared to the wine sector in Italy and Spain thirty years ago, when the largest part of the production was sold as table-wine. 

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International Conference for Fair Trade in Retailing

Fair Trade is a Booming Business

The bi-annual international Conference for Fair Trade in Retailing, which was held in Berlin on 10 September 2009 had a clear objective: Show that Fair Trade is a success story in these times of economic crisis. Among the speakers were representatives of Fair Trade’s “best” like Cadbury (UK), COOP (Switzerland), Starbucks Coffee, EMEA and Sainsbury’s (UK). Under the heading “Fair Trade is a Booming Business” the conference promised to be a place to discover in how far Fair Trade can spur retail’s sustainable business practices and at the same time gain market share that way. Special attention was paid to the positioning of supermarkets’ own brands through Fair Trade.

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"Aid for Trade" for 13 exhibitors at the European Fair Trade Fair

Aid for Trade is about assisting developing countries to increase exports of goods and services, to integrate into the multilateral trading system and to benefit from liberalized trade and increased market access (…). Within the framework of the Belgian Aid for Trade strategy, the Trade for Development Centre of Belgian Technical Cooperation runs a programme to support producer organisations and micro and small enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries in their efforts to benefit from global trade.  

One of the activities the Trade for Development Centre programme finances is the participation of producer organisations and SMEs at trade fairs: Trade fairs are essential in accessing new markets and further developing and consolidating existing business. That is why the Trade for Development Centre decided to collaborate with Equisol to enable Fair Trade producer organisations and SMEs to attend the second European Fair Trade Fair that took place between October 2nd and 4th 2009 in Lyon, France.

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