Fairtrade Austria
| Fairtrade Austria | |
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| purpose | Creation of market access for fair trade products as well as information and awareness-raising work for fair trade in Austria |
| Chair: | Helmut Schüller (since 2007) |
| Establishment date: | 1993 |
| Number of members: | 20 organizations (2019) |
| Seat : | Vienna, Austria |
| Website: | fairtrade.at |
Fairtrade Austria (full name: Association for the Promotion of Fair Trade with the Countries of the South ) is a non-profit association founded in 1993 and based in Vienna . In Austria it awards the Fairtrade seal for fair trade in Austria.
goals and tasks
The overarching goal of Fairtrade Austria is development policy: the reduction of poverty in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Small farmers and plantation workers as well as their families and communities are to be supported and their living and working conditions are to be sustainably improved.
Fairtrade Austria grants importers, processing companies and traders who meet the Fairtrade standards the right to use the Fairtrade seal for their products. In addition, the tasks of Fairtrade also include marketing and public relations for Fairtrade products. In order to move the concerns of smallholder families or workers on plantations in the global south into the center of social and political attention, Fairtrade sees its tasks as being contacts in politics, in communities, in trade and business associations, non-governmental organizations and environmental associations as well as UN organizations inform and connect in a network.
Finally, Fairtrade Austria, as a national Fairtrade organization, also participates in the umbrella organization Fairtrade International, which sets the Fairtrade standards (see organization ). Neither Fairtrade Austria nor Fairtrade International trade themselves.
history
The association was founded in 1993 by several organizations under the name Transfair Austria . According to the company, it included all the important Austrian fair trade organizations and trade union representatives. With the founding of the umbrella organization FLO in 1997 (today: Fairtrade International), Fairtrade Austria joined the umbrella organization. In 2003 the association was renamed Fairtrade Austria .
organization
Members of the association are over 20 organizations from the fields of development policy , church , environment , consumer protection , women , education and social affairs .
In 2019, more than 20 salaried and freelance workers worked in the association's office. Volunteers are supposed to support the association with public relations, for example with tastings or information stands.
Internationally, Fairtrade Austria is united with over 20 other national Fairtrade organizations and Fairtrade marketing organizations as well as three producer networks (as of 2019) in the umbrella organization Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International eV (Fairtrade International). Fairtrade International sets internationally valid Fairtrade standards for its member organizations and advises producer organizations. As part of the standards, it also defines the level of minimum prices and Fairtrade premiums that retailers pay to producer organizations. FLO-Cert GmbH is internationally responsible for the certification and control of the organizations involved in the Fairtrade system.
Fairtrade licensing
Traders pay the association a license fee for using the Fairtrade seal. This fee is paid in addition to the product prices paid to producers and the Fairtrade Premium. The amount of the license fee depends on the product and is charged per unit of weight or as a proportion of the sales price.
Products with the Fairtrade seal are available in Austria in more than 5,000 sales outlets and in 1,900 cafés, bakeries, hotels, restaurants and canteens. Over 2,000 products with the FAIRTRADE seal from around 125 licensed partner companies are available (as of May 2019).
financing
The association finances its work for the most part through license income for the Fairtrade seal it has awarded, around 2.6 million euros in 2019 with a total income of almost 3 million euros. There are also funds from grants and sponsoring (2019: 0.1 million euros). The other sources of income, such as subsidies from the federal states, membership fees, sponsorship money, only play a subordinate role.
The largest part of the income goes into the item "Public Relations" (2019: 0.95 million euros). 0.92 million euros (2019) will be used for international contributions.
Effects
Products with the Fairtrade seal generated sales of around EUR 351 million in Austria in 2019. The most important product categories are green coffee (2019: 4,621 tons), cocoa beans (2019: 3,423 tons) and bananas (2019: 31,535 tons).
For the producers, the Fairtrade standards should achieve economic effects both through price advantages due to the guaranteed minimum prices and Fairtrade premium, as well as through price stability, long-term supply relationships and options for pre-financing. Furthermore, the living conditions of farmers and agricultural workers are to be improved through ecological and social standards.
In 2019, the producer organizations achieved direct income of more than USD 53 million through the sale of Fairtrade-certified products in Austria.
literature
- Fairtrade Austria (Ed.): Annual Report 2009/10 . Vienna 2010 ( ISSUU Online Publishing Platform [accessed December 11, 2010]).
Web links
- fairtrade.at , website of Fairtrade Austria
- fairtrade.net , website of the umbrella organization Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO)