Max Havelaar France, which has labeled fair trade products from developing countries for thirty years, has decided to ” take the plunge “ and “To adapt this experience to French agricultural productions”, announces Blaise Desbordes, general manager of the association. The association has chosen to work on milk and wheat. Sweet or vanilla yogurts and labeled chocolate biscuits should thus be marketed at the end of the year.
The reflection, “Deep and existential”, was launched eighteen months ago, he explains to Agence France-Presse a few days before the Fair Trade Fortnight (May 8 to 23). “We said to ourselves “what do we do with consumers’ expectations of French farmers”, a significant portion of which has difficulty making a living from their work. “
Sixty-two percent of French people believe that greater consumption of food products made in France could help agriculture, according to an OpinionWay poll conducted for Max Havelaar in April.
“Better remuneration for farmers”
The Fairtrade-Max Havelaar label, which is based on specifications, guarantees in particular “Better remuneration for farmers” and respect for the environment. Currently this label concerns products from southern countries, such as bananas, coffee, cocoa, tea, cane sugar, etc.
The management of the association therefore had to explain its approach internally. “I went to make a plea in front of small African and Latin American producers”, members of the FairTrade-Max Havelaar movement, says Blaise Desbordes. They pointed out to him that French farmers had better living conditions than them. “I told them that the French consumer would not understand that Max Havelaar is not interested” to the fate of the peasants of France.
To adapt his label, Max Havelaar has taken care not to have a global approach due to variations in production costs and yields from one region to another. He retained a method “Unpublished” fixing of the guaranteed price according to the territory and a quantified income target for the farmer.
For his first fair trade milk, he worked with the ACLCCP (Central Association of Cooperative Dairies of Charentes and Poitou), which hopes this will help “To keep the dairy industry in decline for several years” in this region. His fair-trade milk will not be the first: “There is an extraordinary dynamic on this product, we said to ourselves that Max Haavelar could not ignore it”, recognizes Blaise Desbordes.
For wheat, the association works with cereal growers from the southwest, where yields are too low to allow many farmers to generate decent income.