Since the end of 2003, Fairtrade Certification & Labelling has
operated in ANZ and has become one of the most visible and successful
ethical and sustainable product labels in the marketplace.
Over the last few months, the Rainforest Alliance (RA) name and
label has been appearing more and more in the ANZ markets. This follows
similar trends in the US and Europe, where large companies such as
McDonalds have launched sustainable products carrying the Rainforest
Alliance label.
Claims by those using the RA label in relation to paying decent
wages, or ensuring fair wages, have led many people to ask us about RA -
is it the same as Fairtrade Certification? How do the two systems
differ? Can RA claim that it is paying
decent
wages? Isn't RA about the environment?
Here are some quick comparative points on Rainforest Alliance and
Fairtrade Certified.
Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance are both international
mission-driven organisations that share common goals of promoting
sustainable development, primarily in developing countries. Both systems
certify commodity products and rely on strict standards, inspections and
third-party certification. Both are members of the ISEAL Alliance and
operate in accordance with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting
Social and Environmental Standards.
The emphasis of Rainforest Alliance is sustainable farm management
without worker exploitation. Rainforest Alliance is NOT Fairtrade and
differs from Fairtrade Certification in the following ways:
1.
Rainforest Alliance DO NOT guarantee prices for products that cover the
costs of sustainable production. Nor do they guarantee a premium on
product purchases for the local community to use to invest in social,
economic and environmental development activities. While Rainforest
Alliance certification is intended to enable compliant farms to
negotiate better prices in the marketplace, it does not have at its
heart the economic instruments essential to fair trade, and that fair
trade advocates believe is essential to long term sustainable
development. Pre-financing for farmer
groups is also not a part of the Rainforest Alliance model.
2. Rainforest Alliance certifies farms of all sizes, and has NO
requirement for democracy and transparency. The emphasis of Fairtrade is
small holder farmers (with 5 hectares or less), organis
ed
into democratically-run cooperative organizations.
3. The majority of Rainforest Alliance certified producers are
plantations (approx. 80%) with the remaining being small farmer groups.
The majority of Fairtrade producers are small farmers with around 20%
small and medium-sized plantations. This difference relates to why RA
emphasizes that workers on plantations are being paid minimum wages,
whereas Fairtrade is focused on empowering and developing small farmers
and their organizations within the global trading system, while also
ensuring benefits from Fairtrade are shared with any workers employed by
certified
cooperatives.
4. Rainforest Alliance allows products to bear its seal with as low
as 30% of the contents from RA certified sources. Fairtrade Labeling of
a product requires that 100% of the relevant ingredient, e.g. coffee, is
from Fairtrade Certified sources.
5. The Rainforest Alliance label is awarded to farms not to
products. Products bear the Fairtrade Label where all actors along the
supply chain to the point of final packaging are registered in the
Fairtrade system and compliance along the chain with Fairtrade
production and trade standards can be verified to be met. All actors
contribute to the costs of the Fairtrade Certification system.
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