“We have now have a World Fairtrade Forum (WFTO), based out of Netherlands, with the membership running into thousands, mainly made up of buyers from Europe, US, Australia and New Zealand and suppliers who hail from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam etc.
“The trading done under Fairtrade is not purely commercial, but is a sort of value-added buying and selling, because when a buyer buys a Fairtrade certified product, it helps the producer in capacity building, training, product development and design and helps the selling organisation to sell more, which in turn benefits the artisans.
“The buyers even pre-finance the sellers by providing them an advance amount, which acts as a working capital for the sellers. Payments too are prompt. The buyers are committed to best trade working practices, which increases the commitment level of the buyers towards the sellers and make them sustainable.
“However the biggest challenge is that the market is small and there are a limited number of buyers. Earlier, they used to source many products from a single supplier. Now the policy is focusing on choosing products in which the seller has developed a core competency.
“The recession of 2008 has had an impact on the Fairtrade business. Earlier the buyers were generous in giving orders for whatever was quoted by the suppliers. But now they are becoming cost conscious. They are giving a pre-determined price and the supplier is expected to work around this price, but not at the cost of cutting-short the workers, by reducing their wages, etc, but by reducing their various overheads”, she concluded by saying.
Informing about the parameters necessary to beget a Fair Trade Certification, she said, “the first is creating opportunities for the economically disadvantaged producers; second, transparency and accountability; third – transparent trading practices; fourth - payment of a fair price; fifth – no child and forced labour; sixth - non discrimination, gender equity and freedom of association; seventh – right working conditions; eight - capacity building; ninth - promotion of fair trade standard and finally the environment”.
In here message to the Indian textile and clothing producers on the occasion of World Fair Trade day, Ms Sridhar, said, “I would request everybody in the industry to practice ethical trade – which means giving back to the community, as since long we have only taken. Though India is developing fast, there are still a lot of disparities and providing a decent living wage could mean, making a beginning by giving back to society”, she wrapped up this very informative interview by saying.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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