Peace and Environment News* December 2003-January 2004
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Peace and Environment News * December 2003-January 2004 |
by Jeff de Jong
 Sugar cane farmer bringing local harvest to OTISA sugar mill in Paraguay. Photo: Jeff de Jong. |
On average, Canadians consume roughly 30 to 40 kilograms of refined sugar per year, making sugar one of the most widely used sweeteners in our diet. Yet how many of us spend any real time pondering the source of this sweet staple as we pour it into our favourite cup of morning coffee or tea, or baking recipe? Most of us are far removed from the reality that sugar cane (the source of 90 per cent of Canadian sugar) is one of the most labour intensive and dangerous commodities to harvest in the world.
For thousands of the world's sugar farmers, the harvesting of sugar cane is back-breaking manual work that involves cutting 12 foot high cane stock with a machete while battling the presence of poisonous snakes and blistering temperatures that rise well above 30 degrees Celsius.
Though sugar is widely understood to be one of the cheapest commodities, this is only because the vast majority of the world's sugar cane producers receive little compensation for their work and, as a result, often live in poverty. Fair Trade is working to address this situation.
On a recent trip to Paraguay, I had the opportunity to learn more about how Fair Trade practices positively impact the lives of sugar farmers in general, and more specifically the lives of the 750 family farmers that our co-operative, La Siembra Co-op, supports through fair trade sugar imports.
My trip included visits with the three sugar cane co-operatives that represent 750 family farms, as well as OTISA, the sugar mill that processes the organic sugar cane harvested by the co-operatives and exports the finished sugar product directly to La Siembra Co-op in Canada.
Raising incomes
I had the opportunity to witness first hand the sugar cane harvest and the hardship it involves. On average, toiling with only a machete in hand, surrounded by 12 foot high sugar cane stalks, a sugar cane farmer is able to harvest one metric ton (mt) of sugar cane per day. For this effort, a farmer not selling within the Fair Trade system receives roughly $11 Cdn. After taking into account the costs of transportation, agricultural inputs, field renovation and loan interest, most farmers have very little left at the end.
In fact, many of the co-operative representatives I spoke with highlighted that producing sugar paid less (after costs) than the national minimum wage of $160 per month and often resulted in a break-even scenario. This is the situation for many of the small-scale sugar farmers who, on average, own less than 3 hectares of land, producing roughly 100 metric tons of sugar cane valued at $1,100 per year.
Under the fair trade system, this bleak economic situation is dramatically improved: farmers receive an additional fair trade premium worth $11 Cdn per metric ton of sugar cane. This premium is paid directly from La Siembra Co-op to the sugar cane co-operatives, and is based on the volume of certified fair trade sugar that is directly imported from OTISA sugar mill.
Fifty per cent of the fair trade premium is paid directly to the farmers by their co-operative organizations. The other 50 per cent goes to the co-operative organizations themselves, to strengthen capacity and improve their operations and services to members.
According to Vicente Cop de vila, the Manager of Arroyense Co-operative, the receipt of these fair trade sugar premiums "makes sugar production viable" for individual farmers. This is beginning to attract other growers in the region to join the co-operative and become part of the fair trade system.
Scholarships and health centres
Some co-operatives have begun to invest fair trade premiums in a number of projects. At the Montillo Association, I witnessed the inauguration of a new warehouse and telecommunications centre which is providing 50 farmer families with the opportunity to diversify their income base by storing and distributing other agricultural products. At the Arroyense Co-operative, I learned of an educational scholarship fund for children, and of plans to establish a health centre that would provide subsidized health care for co-operative members and extend services to community members at large.
Learning of these projects and hearing from farmers directly was immensely inspirational. It gave me hope that fair trade can really make a difference for sugar farmers that otherwise have great difficulties in meeting their basic needs and improving their standard of living.
Since January 2002, La Siembra Co-operative has imported 180,000 kilograms of sugar—making it one of the largest importers of organic fair trade sugar from Paraguay—and paid over $25,000 Cdn in fair trade premiums directly to sugar cane growing co-operatives. In 2003, the percentage of sugar sold under fair trade conditions by OTISA sugar mill was roughly 25 per cent of the sugar they had available for export. There is much room for improvement.
I came away from my trip feeling positive about the message behind La Siembra's Cocoa Camino sugar products and of our co-operative's ability to assist Paraguayan farmers to reach new fair trade markets. I believe that fair trade is a viable and valuable alternative, and that people, when provided an affordable yet socially responsible alternative, do indeed "taste the difference" fair trade makes.
Jeff de Jong is member/owner of La Siembra Co-operative.
"It's very complex, but for me it all boils down to fish and chips. In an ideal world, one person would have fish, another would have potatoes, and you'd trade so you both got fish and chips. But you need to be able to trade on equal terms."
—Chris Martin, Lead Singer of Coldplay
Converted December 12, 2003 - Lg
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