Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International
| Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) |
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|---|---|
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| purpose | Promotion of development aid and development cooperation |
| Chair: | Marike de Peña (2014) |
| Establishment date: | 1997 |
| Number of members: | 28 organizations (2014) |
| Seat : |
Bonn , Germany
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| Website: | fairtrade.net |
Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) , in its external presentation Fairtrade International , is an umbrella organization for fair trade founded in 1997 and based in Bonn . It is affiliated with other internationally active umbrella organizations in the FINE network .
The organization develops its own standards for fair trade and issues the Fairtrade seal through its national seal organizations for products that have been certified in accordance with these FLO standards. It is a member of the ISEAL Alliance . Members are national seal initiatives that are responsible for awarding the Fairtrade seal and public relations in individual countries, including TransFair for Germany, Max Havelaar for Switzerland and Fairtrade Austria from the German-speaking area . Further full members are producer networks, one each for the regions Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Asia, and marketing organizations that are supposed to promote fair trade in countries without their own labeling initiative. There are also associated members. In 2018, a total of 20 national Fairtrade organizations, three producer organizations and nine marketing organizations were members.
The full members send representatives to the general assembly, in which half of the producer organizations and half of the seal initiatives are represented. The general assembly elects the board, whereby a quota system also applies here: four board members are nominated by the national seal initiatives, four by the producer organizations. A further three are proposed by a nomination committee appointed by the nomination committee. The Board of Directors elects the management and appoints committees, in particular the committee that further develops the Fairtrade standards. FLO has (as of 2014) around 70 employees at the association's headquarters in Bonn and another 50 who work as liaison officers worldwide.
FLO works closely with FLO-CERT GmbH. FLO-CERT checks and certifies the producers and dealers based on the standards developed by FLO. FLO-CERT has obtained ISO 65 accreditation as an independent certification organization. This is intended to demonstrate quality management, transparency and independent certification decisions,
The FLO focuses on the certification of mainly agricultural products. Companies that work with the FLO are both alternative trade organizations ("fair trade organization"), which work exclusively according to the principles of fair trade, as well as large retail chains, discounters and companies in the food industry, for the production of and trade in Fairtrade products only is a niche in the range. The focus on product certification and licensing beyond pure fair trade organizations distinguishes the FLO from the other international umbrella organizations for fair trade, the World Fair Trade Organization .
history
The first fair trade seal of approval was introduced in 1988 by Max Havelaar in the Netherlands. The desired goal of selling more fairly traded coffee was achieved: The market share rose from 0.2% in 1987 to 1.7% in 1989. The success led to labeling initiatives in other countries, primarily through development aid organizations were founded, including the first national TransFair initiative Transfair Germany.
The national labeling initiatives differ in their organization and standards. Some board members were made up of development aid organizations and were answerable to them, others suggested their successors themselves, and still others involved producers and traders. Some labeling initiatives allowed the certification of tea plantations, others limited themselves to small-scale farms. Efforts to harmonize standards and processes led to 17 labeling initiatives establishing Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) as a joint umbrella organization in 1997 . In 2002 FLO introduced the common Fairtrade label. FLO-CERT was founded in 2004 to ensure independent certification of producers and dealers.
FLO received the King Baudouin Prize in 2002/2003.
Since 2011 FLO has been appearing externally under the name Fairtrade International .
At the end of 2011, the Transfair USA label initiative , now Fair Trade USA , with around 1 billion euros in retail sales in 2011, the second largest, left the FLO. It issued a new seal and has since certified large producers that are not organized as cooperatives.
Participation of producers
The development of FLO itself is characterized by tensions over the involvement of producers in their decision-making processes. Initially, only national labeling initiatives were members. According to some critics, decisions were mainly influenced by influential, financially strong initiatives. Initially, producers could not formally co-determine the standards through which they were regulated and which were intended to strengthen them. At their pressure, FLO implemented a series of reforms, with producers increasingly involved. In 2004 they were given the right to nominate a minority of the directors on the supervisory board, since 2007 producer networks have had formal membership status, and since 2014 they have been represented equally on the supervisory board.
Expansion to conventional companies and sales channels
Since FLO was founded, more and more conventional food production, processing and trading companies, for which fair trade is only a niche, have been included in the certification. This was the main reason for the rapidly increasing sales of certified products. Critics fear that conventional companies have no real interest in the goals of fair trade, but want to conquer niche markets and improve their image simply by complying with the minimum necessary criteria .
Standards and certification
Standards
FLO defines standards that an organization must adhere to so that its products can be certified and receive the Fairtrade seal.
The standards encompass both organizational and product-related criteria; they define both fixed requirements and requirements for continuous process improvements.
The price standards require the payment of a minimum price to cover costs , which FLO sets according to a specific procedure for most product groups. If the market prices of the respective trading level are above the minimum prices, then at least the market price must be paid. Producers and traders can also negotiate higher prices. The prices are created by market pricing, but the producers are to be protected from ruinously low prices by regulatory requirements. In addition, there is a so-called Fairtrade premium, with which municipal projects are to be funded. In 2013, with a total turnover of approx. 5.5 billion euros for products with the Fairtrade seal, Fairtrade premiums of approx. 83 million euros were paid.
Certification and Monitoring
The certification and monitoring of seal recipients is carried out by an independent organization, FLO-CERT GmbH.
market
According to estimates by the FLO, products with the Fairtrade label were sold in around 70 countries with a total volume of 3.4 billion euros. In 2013 it was 5.5 billion euros. The most important sales countries, measured in terms of total sales, in 2013 were the United Kingdom (a good 2 billion euros in 2013) and Germany (600 million euros), France, Switzerland and the USA (each over 300 million euros). The most important products, measured by the number of units sold, were flowers, bananas, sugar, coffee and cocoa.
See also
literature
- Darryl Reed: Fairtrade International (FLO) . In: D. Reed, P. Utting and A. Mukherjee Reed (Eds.): Business Regulation and Non-state Actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development? Routledge, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-415-59311-3 , chap. 22 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fairtrade Standards , fairtrade.net, accessed October 8, 2013.
- ↑ a b The Fairtrade System. Fairtrade International, accessed October 4, 2018 .
- ↑ Fairtrade Germany (Ed.): Structure and structure of the international Fairtrade system . March 2013 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento from September 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Reed: Fairtrade International (FLO). 2012, p. 300.
- ^ A b Reed: Fairtrade International (FLO). 2012, pp. 301-303.
- ↑ Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (ed.): Growing Stronger Together, Annual Report 2009-10 . ( PDF, 2.5 MB [accessed on January 14, 2010]).
- ↑ Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (ed.): Fairtrade International, Challenge and Opportunity, Annual Review 2010–11 . S. 22 ( PDF ).
- ↑ Dave Gram: Fair trade purists cry foul at including big farms. Associated Press, March 31, 2012, accessed June 13, 2014 .
- ^ A b Reed: Fairtrade International (FLO). 2012.
- ^ Reed: Fairtrade International (FLO). 2012, p. 303.
- ↑ a b Fairtrade International (Ed.): Annual Report 2013–14 . Strong Producers, Strong Future. ( PDF ).