Fair Trade for a fairer go
Kathryn Boyle
Columban Fr Shay Cullen, Director of the PREDA* Foundation in the Subic area, north of Manila, is no stranger to giving people new hope and a better chance to reach their full potential. He has worked with children caught up in the dehumanising sex trade or in other situations of danger for many years. Another aspect of his work may not be well-known to readers of The Far East.
PREDA Fair Trade was established in 1975 as a local handcraft production unit making wicker furniture and baskets to help small craftspeople improve their conditions and train jobless youth in a trade.
But several years later, the real success story began.
Fr Shay became aware that the local small-scale mango farmers were being exploited by a price-fixing cartel of wealthy fruit exporters. The farmers had to sell to the cartel for ridiculously low prices or see their fruit rot on the trees. A life of poverty makes the bright city lights attractive to young people who are often then easily caught up in the seedier side of city living through necessity. Fr Shay realized that one way to keep the children of farmers at home and safe was to improve their conditions.
PREDA Fair Trade entered into a partnership with a struggling family who happened to own a dried fruit processor. This partnership then bought the mangoes for a fair price direct from the farmers and processed the chemical-free dried fruit for Fair Trade importers and ethical commercial distributors in Europe. Although things developed slowly at first, hard work and dedication paid off and demand for this product grew and markets expanded.
After 10 years PREDA Fair Trade was a trusted brand and the dried mango was a fast selling, preservative free and delicious product. Soon PREDA Fair Trade and their partners were buying hundreds of tonnes of fresh fruit at higher prices than the cartel so they were deprived of their cheap exploited suppliers. This created a shortage of fruit and members of the cartel were soon competing with each other for a share of the harvest which the farmers happily brought to PREDA Fair Trade for a better price. The power of the cartel was broken and it soon disintegrated.
Product development over the years now means that even small or poorer quality fruit can be used in mango puree and juice concentrate. This has delighted local farmers who previously couldn't on-sell these fruits. As demand grew thousands of grafted mango trees were planted and produced fruit after five years. This project has done more than its fair share for reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially CO2 which is absorbed by the expanding mango orchards.
Today thousands of workers are employed in the processing plant with excellent wages and conditions. The quality of the produce is so high that the products easily qualify for ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certification. The earnings of PREDA Fair Trade go towards providing development assistance for the most threatened farmers of all - the indigenous people.
This fair trade story shows how successful such ventures can be in reshaping the lives of the people involved. Over a period of 30 years, PREDA Fair Trade has battled modern forms of slavery, encouraged workers, reduced poverty and given enormous hope and pride to the people engaged in it. If ever you travel to Europe - keep an eye peeled for PREDA Fair Trade dried mangoes. They are delicious!
· People's Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. For more information see: http://www.preda.net/ and click on Fair Trade.
