Fair trade certification may have been among the earliest platforms to communicate social responsibility attributes, however, that space is becoming increasingly crowded with a dizzying array of health, welfare and sustainability statements plastered on everything from coffee and cocoa to seafood, poultry and cereal. It seems to me that just as folks can now tailor what media they choose to consume, so too can they increasingly align their purchases with their own specific interests and causes.
Clearly there is a market for everything from eco-friendly goods to foodstuffs making or not making use of specific ingredients or agricultural practices. Having said this, I have always been fascinated by the concept of fair trade goods. A concept often described as a movement, fair trade certification aims at giving producers in developing countries an avenue to benefit from more advantageous trading conditions. More specifically, the concept has seen a focus on sustainable agricultural practices while also working to deliver greater value chain equity. In many instances, however, this model has seen stakeholders in developing countries receiving “fair prices” for their primary goods which are then wildly advanced in value in the “Global North”.
This in no way diminishes the critical role that value chain partners play in supplying funding and expertise as committed fair trade participants. After all, in certain circumstances it may simply not be viable to execute production “in country”. But what about those situations where it is?
La Paz – Dedicated to Costa Rica
Founded by a husband and wife team, Compania Frutera La Paz does not formally participate in a fair trade program but is very much a woman led business with deep commitments to Costa Rican farmers, workers and sustainable agricultural practices. As a VLM partner, La Paz produces top quality frozen fruit with state of the art freezing technology. In providing local farmers with access to agronomical expertise as well as helping to establish the region’s largest organic pineapple farming cooperative, the VLM-La Paz partnership is making a difference in the day-to-day lives of Costa Rican farmers, workers and their families.
La Paz is an important economic operator in Costa Rica
Rather than only paying farmers for fruit that is processed somewhere else, La Paz partners with farmers as well as starting and completing processing in Costa Rica. From a development perspective, this translates into value optimization being created in and being retained by Costa Rica. The economic multipliers that come from maintaining production in Costa Rica are not to be underestimated. From requiring in-house food safety and quality control experts to needing electrical engineers, tradespeople and services to support a world class frozen food processing facility…La Paz is an important economic operator that also happens to be Costa Rica’s single largest frozen pineapple exporter.
Even more amazing, La Paz has achieved this success without sacrificing its core commitment to sustainability. A point underlined by the company being, to the best of our knowledge, the world’s 1st carbon neutral certified frozen tropical fruit processor while also maintaining a best in class social responsibility audit status that includes providing workers with what in many instances amounts to their first access to medical care.
Hurricane Otto – Relief Efforts
Having said all this, one is not defined by how one acts when things are going well but instead by how one deals with adversity. Last month’s landfall of Hurricane Otto spared La Paz and our family of pineapple growers but it did wreak havoc in many northern communities. Joining with local businesses, La Paz was part of a rapid response private sector relief effort. A relief effort that saw both VLM and La Paz staff working alongside impacted residents as an initial effort towards eventually seeing communities being made whole again.
If I come across sounding boastful about our sister company…..I am guilty as charged. I am immensely proud to be part of an organization centered on integrity with deep and broad commitments to creating shared value for supply chain partners upstream and down. As part of the World Trade Organization’s 20th Anniversary commemorations, the WTO produced a short video on La Paz which I encourage you to review while considering what value chain equity really means.
