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Dear Fair Tade Flower Customers,

Back in 2002, when our first farms obtained the Fair Trade certification, nurseries and child care centers in the farms had limited resources. Now, all of our roses that are sold with the Fair Trade logo earn an extra 10% of the selling price. This extra money is paid to the workers to invest in social projects related to education, health, small businesses, loans and many other initiatives to improve their lives.

Little by little, our workers on our farms have made investments in improving the nurseries. They now look much cozier and provide a better environment for children to grow and learn.

The Fair Trade Premium has also supported education by providing school materials and uniforms to workers and their children. Generally, this type of support is given as a reward for good grades and regular school attendance.

Our farms also support many local schools by providing furniture, school materials and building facilities. We strive to give children the best possible learning environment to ensure their educational success. In some cases these schools rely on the Fair Trade premium for basic equipment like windows and desks. This has made the scope of influence of Fair Trade in our farms much broader than only the workers and their families.

By the beginning of 2008, our workers received health benefits, but they didn’t have easy access to hospitals and doctors. Sometimes workers had to travel several hours to reach the hospital. Nowadays every farm has a doctors’ office, and specialists visit the farms on specific dates to undertake several types of preventive medicine.

The Fair Trade Premium has also helped provide loans to workers for home improvements and for starting new businesses. Interest rates are very low, and payment conditions are favorable to the worker’s situation.

We are happy to share these accomplishments with our friends all over the world who support Fair Trade and buy our roses. These are top quality roses, harvested with faith in this fair system.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

~ Ecuador Fair Trade Association

A woman collects roses at a farm in Ethiopia, Africa's second-largest flower exporter after Kenya. Photographer: Jose Cendon/Bloomberg News

Fair Trade Certified^TM flowers were first introduced to the US market in 2007 when TransFair USA (now Fair Trade USA) began licensing importers for the program. The addition of Fair Trade flowers to the US market was an incredible accomplishment for the producers and licensees who chose to participate in the program. It presented a great opportunity to grow sustainable sales in a new market and make an even bigger impact for floral workers worldwide. The Fair Trade flowers program has seen a good amount of success since its beginnings, but has not yet been able to win the wide-scale market awareness and producer participation as other products such as Fair Trade coffee, fruit, and tea.

Toxic Perfection

One industry analyst correctly observed that consumers are perfectly willing to accept an apple with a spot or two, and coffee is never seen in its raw form, but consumers demand flawless, perfect flowers.  The result of this demand is increased use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals to produce faultless flowers.

A 2009 case study from the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization found that over 120 chemicals are used in Ethiopia’s floriculture industry, 15 of which the World Health Organization classifies as carcinogenic. This number is not much higher than what is found in other major floral-producing countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, and Kenya, where local governments often turn a blind eye to the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides that have long been banned in the United States.

Insecticide Use on a Non-FT Farm

The Fair Trade flowers program bans the use of over 100 of the most harmful agrochemicals and requires farms to learn entirely new growing practices. This is no small task to teach. The benefits of these changes cannot be overstated, but they do create a ‘barrier to entry’ for farms that consider transitioning to Fair Trade Certified^TM growing practices. This limits the reach of the program in many areas where chemical-induced production is seen as the norm.

 On the Move

In addition to wanting perfect flowers, consumers want their bouquets to last for many days. One of the unique challenges to Fair Trade flower importers is the logistics and timing of importing a highly perishable product.  Unlike coffee, tea, clothing, or even fruit, flowers must be hydrated and kept cool for their long journey into the country and even up until delivery to the final consumer.

From the perspective of a licensed importer, this can be a challenging task. Many importers bring Fair Trade flowers in to large warehousing facilities where they are hydrated, cooled, repackaged, and then shipped to a florist or final customer. This method can cut 3 to 5 days off the lifespan of those flowers in a customer’s home or office.

Other companies like One World Flowers have developed a direct-ship logistics solution to getting flowers to customers. In this case, flowers are cut and hydrated at the farm, and they arrive directly to the consumer within 48 to 72 hours later. There is a significant cost associated with direct shipping in this way, but the benefits include a much longer lifespan for the flowers and a higher quality product that hasn’t experienced as much interference as warehoused flowers.

Logistics of Flower Shipping

Despite these challenges and many others, Fair Trade flowers in the US have made a great impact and resulted in many changes on floral farms, especially in South America. The importers and producers that are committed to the program continue to see Fair Trade sales rise, even in the depths of America’s economic woes. Take a moment during Fair Trade Month to help the Fair Trade flower movement grow while brightening someone’s day at the same time.