News
Global Fruit Chooses “Responsible Label”
Source: Huis aan Huis 21-07-2010
Garyp – Those who make the choice for Fair Trade choose for justice and sustainability in international trade. What’s a stake is a fair price, especially in the case of producers from developing countries. Above all else Fair Trade makes no use of child or slave labour and respect for society and the environment are the rule rather than the exception. This summer representatives of the Tûmba centre in Leeuwarden will be interviewing eight businesses and municipalities that have make a conscious choice to work with Fair Trade products. This week: Bareld Kootstra, director of Global Fruit, Garyp, which was recently chosen as Millennium Company 2010.
How “Fair Trade” is Global Fruit? We buy and sell approximately ten thousand tons of fruit concentrates, fruit juices and fruit purees annually. Our company functions as an intermediary between [fruit] producers from Africa, India and South America and customers in Europe. At the moment about forty percent of all our business is Fair Trade or Organic. We have very deliberately navigated towards this market and believe that in ten years everything will be Fair Trade. Additionally we have ourselves helped to bring the fruit juice, Goedsap® to the market, which is certified as both Fair Trade and Organic. The juice itself is made from a combination of organically produced apples from the Netherlands and various Fair Trade tropical fruits.
Why has Global Fruit chosen the responsible route? My heart longs for a fair and sustainable society on an international scale, and I’m not a man that likes hurdles. The best thing about Fair Trade is that its is a very simple concept: it is nothing more than making a conscious decision to choose a responsible label. Consumers have nothing to loose by trying Fair Trade products, they are going to be spending their money anyway. The success last year of Fair Trade chocolate letters during the “Sinterklaas” period demonstrates the fact very well that things can be done differently. And we try to do our bit when it comes to fruit products. After my graduation I worked for a time at a large, well known international fruit company where I sometimes had the feeling: this isn’t right. That’s why when I started Global Fruit I made the conscious decision to do things fairly.
Are your business relations also sensitive to Fair Trade arguments? More and more. The realisation that a fair price does more than just rightly reward producers for their work is growing. We don’t have to be sentimental over how people in developing countries live. It would be better for us to try and ensure that through fair pricing these people are given the means develop their own communities and societies. In the end this can only offer benefits to a sustainable production system.
Do you make these choices as consciously in your private life as much as you do in business? To be honest just like at Global Fruit I have been unable to make a full transition to Fair Trade. At home our coffee, tea, fruit and fruit juices are Fair Trade and alongside this we try to eat as much organic produce as we can, indeed we even grow some of our own vegetables. But of course you can always do more. When I come back from business trips to countries like the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Peru, Costa Rica or even India it always motivates me to do more. It is also quite inspiring because these other cultures are so enriching. They can learn many things from us, but we can also learn many things from them. That’s why doing business with each other is so satisfying. But only as long as its fair, balanced and done with respect for people and planet.