Jordan Times
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Fair Trade Jordan opens
up global markets to small producers
By Sheila M. Dabu
JERASH — About 50 people, including
representatives of environmental and social development NGOs, on Friday
participated in the first Fair Trade Jordan event held outside Amman.
Participants travelled to Jerash and met local producers at the Dibbeen reserve,
an organic olive farm, and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development's
(JOHUD) community centre in Kitteh.
“Fair trade opens up an awareness of trade and economic justice for the poor,”
said Winkie Williamson, strategic adviser to JOHUD.
Fair Trade Jordan, established by a consortium of NGOs, including the Royal
Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), IUCN and JOHUD, began in
September.
“The Fair Trade Jordan field trip is intended to raise awareness of the diverse
ways that rural people have to use to make a living and how they would benefit
from access to increased markets,” Williamson said.
Fair trade is one of the fastest growing markets and has found a niche amongst
European and North America's “ethically conscious” shoppers concerned about the
environment and human rights.
According to a 2003 report by the Fair Trade Federation and International Fair
Trade Association, the production of fair trade goods in North America and the
Pacific Rim rose by 37 per cent that year, with current sales totalling $250.6
million.
Williamson estimates that global profits are close to $750,000.
Activists say that the human impact of fair trade is equally, if not more,
important.
Kawther Dwaikat, a salesperson at Wild Jordan in Ajloun, was on hand at the
Dibbeen Reserve, selling handmade jewellery and other crafts.
Dwaikat said fair trade addresses the problem of unemployment in Ajloun and
contributes to gender empowerment.
“We train the women to make handicrafts to acquire skills, not just money, and
to raise their self-confidence,” she told The Jordan Times.
In Ajloun, cutting down trees, hunting and overgrazing are the main
environmental problems, Dwaikat said. Fair trade provides an alternative
livelihood.
“It helps distribute the benefits to all, to each village in the Ajloun reserve
and to preserve nature,” she added.
According to RSCN Dibbeen guide Yousef Zregat, events like the Fair Trade Jordan
field trip “change people's attitudes about nature.”
Elisabeth Page, an American Fulbright scholar who attended the event, said “a
balance between development and trade” was needed in countries like Jordan.
Critics of fair trade say that this free-trade “alternative” is only developing
a niche market instead of leading to real social change. But fair trade
supporters argue that certification is one way to ensure that there are positive
benefits.
According to Williamson, the certification process of fair trade products in
Jordan is still in its early stages but there is a plan being worked out to
identify the best potential market.
“We are looking for the first two products and processes to certify. Olive oil
might be one of them,” she said.
Olive oil is one of the few products in which Jordan can compete in the European
market, she added.
In an eight-hectare farm in Burma, Jerash, Nasser Frehat and his three sons are
organic olive oil farmers. Frehat partnered with the Nippon International
Cooperation for Community Development (NICCOD), a Japanese NGO, in a fair trade
project this year.
“In the future, we hope to expand our business and export to Japan and Europe,”
Frehat said. “Fair trade means fair wages, fair everything.”
The NICCOD Jerash project, run in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture
and the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) has helped nine poor
farmers, a local oil press and an exporter to receive full certification meeting
Japanese organic standards.
According to NICCOD's Kana Tsuda, their permaculture project with organic olive
farmers hopes to sell 12,000 bottles of olive oil in Japan by February 2006.
“What was interesting was how the olive oil sector, the small producers, by
grouping together, are getting access to much bigger markets,” Williamson said.
Supporters of fair trade are keen to stress that it is not about turning back
the clock on free trade.
“Free trade is here. What's important is if we are going to have a globalised
economy, what ways will that affect certain sections of people like the poor.”
Williamson said.
But the likelihood is that there will be an imbalance in the flow of trade in
the Euro-Med area, she added.
“Inevitably, European organisations are better placed to take advantage of the
markets in Jordan than Jordanian producers in Europe.”
Others say that this reality underscores the need for alternative markets like
fair trade for smaller producers.
Asked about her impressions of the event, JICA's Chie Miyahara said that the
trip combined environmental awareness with social good.
“I hope that selling this kind of product through fair trade can achieve its
desired outcomes,” she said.
The day trip was organised by a group of NGOs including NICCOD, the RSCN and
JOHUD. Representatives of the European Commission, USAID and other NGOs also
participated.
The next fair trade event will take place on Dec. 8 at the Wild Jordan Café in
Amman.