Fresh Fruit
In 2002, nine banana producers and two mango producers became the first fresh fruit producer organizations certified by FLO. At the end of 2005, more than 70 producer groups or farms were certified in at least 10 different countries. They produce:
- Exotic fruit: bananas and pineapples
- Citrus fruit: oranges, lemons, limes, and mandarin oranges
- Sub-tropical fruit: avocadoes, and mangoes
- Deciduous fruit: apples, grapes, pears, and plums
Small Farmers´ Organizations and Hired Labour situations
The characteristics of the fresh fruit sector being the perishability of the product sold in a market under high pressure, FLO has acknowledge the need to have a combined certifying system in order to satisfy market requirements.
Small Farmers´ Organizations require more time than plantations to reach the quality criteria that they have to comply with and have some limits in providing the desired volume.
Plantations are important in complementary relationship to smallholders. They give smallholders strength on the market and allow Fairtrade fresh fruit to satisfy market demand in terms of quality consistency and volume.
This is why FLO is working with both Small Farmers´ Organizations and plantations in the fresh fruit sector. Small Farmers´ Organizations, however, are given preference, as they are more restrained by conditions of trade.
Fairtrade-certified fresh-fruit producers and workers are ensured a better deal for their work and can invest the Fairtrade Premium in improving their business and on social projects. Many of them have also used the additional Fairtrade payment to convert to organic.
“Two of the biggest problems our producers face are that growing organic avocadoes leads to higher production costs, while the organic fruits are smaller. Up to now, production losses could not be compensated by higher selling prices because of the small demand for organic avocadoes and because the middlemen got most of the benefits. For us the Fairtrade market is a bridge between the environmentally aware producer, who produces a better quality fruit, and the sensitized consumer, who knows that his money goes directly to the producers. Fairtrade guarantees that everyone wins,” says Gustavo Alonso Vallejo Esquivel, President of PRAGOR, a Fairtrade and organic certified avocado cooperative in Mexico.