Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Ta ble 17.3
Fair trade certified production by region, 2004 (metric tons)
Africa
Latin America
Asia
Coffee
4 386
24 932
764
Cocoa
2 073
1 889
0
Tea
1 620
0
766
Sugar
2 027
5 778
714
Honey
276
1 339
0
Bananas
1 317
64 670
0
Other fresh fruits
5 968
1 108
0
Fruit juice
8
2 943
11
Total
17 675
102 659
2 255
Source:
FLO-I (2005b).
number of fair trade certi
ed producer groups increased from 211 to 433, with producer
countries expanding from 40 to 53 (Raynolds and Long, 2007). Latin America is the tra-
ditional hub of fair trade production, accounting for over 50 percent of all FLO certi
fi
ed
groups and over 75 per cent of fair trade sales values and volumes. Table 17.3 highlights
the importance of fair trade co
fi
ee in Latin America; the region also produces large
amounts of bananas and cocoa. Asia, in contrast, is a relatively minor fair trade player,
producing tea, co
ff
ee and sugar.
Africa is the second-most important production region for fair trade certi
ff
ed com-
modities, with exports valued at roughly US$24 million. This region is experiencing the
most rapid expansion in fair trade production with the emergence of new certi
fi
fi
ed com-
modities and producer groups. The number of FLO certi
ed groups in Africa has risen
dramatically, increasing from 78 to 171 between 2004 and 2006 (FLO-I, 2006b). Africa is
the world's major supplier of fair trade certi
fi
fi
ed tea and cocoa, and a secondary but crit-
ical supplier of certi
ee and bananas. As noted in Table 17.4, there are 33 producer
groups involved in fair trade co
fi
ed co
ff
ee production, 17 in tea and four in cocoa.
Africa has emerged as the major supplier of a number of new fair trade products, which
have only become certi
ff
fi
ed within the past
fi
ve years. This region supplies the vast major-
ity of newly certi
ed fresh fruits (other than bananas), producing both tropical and tem-
perate items. There are currently 40 groups growing these new fair trade fruits across seven
African countries. South Africa is the regional and world leader, with 22 certi
fi
ed groups
supplying fresh citrus, apples and grapes. This country is also a leading exporter of newly
certi
fi
ed wine, which is now produced by 22 FLO registered enterprises. In addition,
Africa is the world's largest producer of newly introduced fair trade cut
fi
fl
owers and orna-
mental plants,
5
ed enterprises. What is
striking about fair trade's growth in these new commodity areas in Africa is that almost
all of this expansion is taking place in the large-estate sector. In South Africa, for example,
only 7 percent of fair trade enterprises are within the smallholder sector (Kruger and du
Toit, 2007). While this pattern of expansion threatens the traditional primacy of small-
scale producers in fair trade, it may increase the standard of living for the large number
of disadvantaged workers employed in African agro-export sectors and in some cases
grant workers access to land or equity shares in estate enterprises (Tallontire et al., 2005;
with
fl
owers grown largely in Kenya by 11 certi
fi
