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Flower trade

May 3, 2011

Fairtrade products from around the world are increasingly making their way into regular German supermarkets. No longer a label restricted to specialty stores, the movement for conscientious consumers is blooming.

https://p.dw.com/p/118BL
Worker displaying a bundle of red-yellow roses inside Kenyan greenhouse.
Europe is Kenya's primary market for flowersImage: DW

To obtain the "Fairtrade" label, the Dutch subsidiary of Van den Berg Limited, located at Naivasha in Kenya's Rift Valley, must prove that it meets standards for social responsibility, environmental sustainability and, of course, decent wages.

Fifteen hundred people work in its greenhouses at Naivasha in Kenya's Rift Valley. Inside, the air is humid. The scene is ablaze with the orange and yellow colors of Baccara roses, with their small flower heads and long stems.

Entering the mainstream

Fairtrade's German branch was founded in 1992. Its certifying agency, based in Bonn, vouches that wares such as coffee, textiles and wines, imported for example from Colombia or Kenya, are produced and sold via ethical partnerships between producers and consumers.

The aim is to repair past imbalances in trading relationships und unstable markets. Fairtrade also requires such firms to treat their own workers as stakeholders.

Fairtrade roses are becoming an increasingly common sight in buckets near the vegetable sections of German supermarkets.

According to the association's latest annual report, sales in Fairtrade roses grew by 10 percent in Germany last year. The Kenyan subsidiary of Van den Berg hopes to get in on the action.

One of potential stakeholders in Kenya is Abil Massinde Nandi, aged 32, who's worked at Naivasha for three years.

Working conditions, he says, are better than those he experienced previously at other flower farms in Kenya, where gloves, gumboots and protective aprons were not normally supplied.

Bunch of yellow and red roses with Fairtrade label protruding above
The Fairtrade logo is becomming more common in German supermarketsImage: Max Havelaar Stiftung

Better conditions

"There are people who work without all of these things, without gumboots, but here, they were provided; I also worked without gloves; but when I came here they were provided.”

Firms that hope to place the Fairtrade label on their products must also demonstrate to the certifying organization that their workers' health is safeguarded.

"During spraying," says Abil, "we are not allowed to go anywhere near the sprayed area; So, I think I'm safe.”

Abil says his wages for his family, which includes two children, have also increased. Flower growers who previously employed him paid him about 350 euros a month, or, in the local currency, 42,000 Kenyan shillings.

“But when I came here I started with 47,000 initially." After a probation period of three months that rose to 52,000 shillings or about 420 euros. With more training his wage could rise to 69,000 shillings, Abil says.

Worker in greenhouse pushing cart containing bundles of roses.
Kenya is Africa's leading cut flower exporterImage: DW

Local dividends

For products sold in Europe a portion is supposed to flow back to the local workforce in the form of a special premium.

Christabele Thanji, a Fairtrade representative, says this additional revenue must be invested in communal services, such as education and healthcare. How it's used is decided by the workers, not management.

She says the money is typically invested in something useful for the community like a communal bore hole or a piece of land.

"Maybe they want to buy a piece of land. We can fund classrooms, or even sponsor children to such schools, or even sponsor teachers,” Thanji said.

Since the subsidiary began its Kenyan operations in 2003, with 100 workers, its labor force has multiplied 15-fold.

Its Kenyan executive George Ong'any says Fairtrade's network helps ensure easier market access abroad.

"The market? You find it through Fairtrade," he said.

According to Fairtrade, overall sales in Germany grew 27 percent last year. Alongside 72 million rose stems, consumers bought 7,200 tonnes of coffee sourced from three continents, and over a million liters of wine, also imported under the label.

Author: Ute Schaeffer / ipj
Editor: Nathan Witkop