Discovery Ramblings - May 28, 2021
Discovery Ramblings - May 28, 2021
Randy Hooper - Discovery Organics
So how did we all do on Fair Trade Month?
Our general impression is with a big push this year we / you helped increase public awareness about Fair Trade quite a bit. Some of you had great signage and seemed really keen. Promoting Fair Trade is just one more way you can provide a shopping experience that draws people – for both organic and Fair Trade products. Fair Trade labeling is much more likely to find its way onto organic products than conventional, because the organic consumer is much more likely to also look beyond the organic label and notice if the product is local, or Fair Trade etc.
Our hope is that more of your consumers were exposed to a wider range of Fair Trade options last month, besides the coffee, tea and sugar they have come to know and love.
Our sales of Fair Trade products could have been much higher, and I’ll explain that below, but we did generate $21,661 in social premiums on sales of Avocado, Banana, Lemons, Melons, Brussels Sprouts, Cucumbers, Ginger, Peppers, Hot Peppers, Zucchini, Hard Squash, Turmeric and Tomatoes (Cherry, Vine, Heirloom and Roma.)
Now when I say it could have been better, Pragor ran out of avocados in early May, so we ran out part way through the month – and they are our only option for Fair Trade fruit. So that would have helped. As would have sales of Fair Trade grapes, but the Mexican season is just starting. So we missed that boat as well.
Supply of Fair Trade vegetables out of Mexico is complicated. Cukes, zucchini, tomatoes and peppers are extremely competitive markets, and while all our Fair Trade growers (like Covilli, Del Cabo, Divine Flavor, Wholesum, Rico etc.) would rather ship everything under the Fair Trade, the majority of their customers aren’t interested in paying the extra few dollars. So they only pack a portion of their production with Fair Trade labeling. Otherwise they are paying the social premium out of pocket, and not getting the higher Fair Trade selling price. For example, Wholesum or Rico are sending a full truck of zucchini or peppers to their warehouses in Arizona, and only 6 pallets are labelled Fair Trade. They hope that they sell all those at the Fair Trade price. And very often if the demand is higher for Fair Trade, they may not have enough to ship that’s labelled. That is why you may see two listings from us for the exact same product, same supplier, but one is Fair Trade and one is not – simply because they didn’t have enough labelled Fair Trade product when we were picking up our order. If all that product was available to us all the time with Fair Trade labeling that could create another $50,000 - $100,000 in social premiums every year.
Now where did all that money go?
For Asoguabo – it will have gone into a fund controlled by the small coop members, for which they will decide which project it will be used for – maybe to partially fund a cataract surgery clinic. For Pragor it could be helping to pay for a new compost windrow machine so they can more effectively make compost from food waste for their growers, and cut down local food waste, as well as a continuing contribution for a music program for orphaned kids and teens we have been so proud to support for 5 years. For Divine Flavor? That money will go to a separate trust fund, controlled by their employees. Their workers don’t live in Sonora, but travel by bus for the winter growing season from the south of Mexico, in Chiapas, Tabasco and Oaxaca – so those social premiums are more and more going to provide community services in the towns they work and live in including a new community health clinic they have just finished. For the ginger and turmeric growers of La Grama, that money is also controlled by a worker assembly in Peru, and can be used for travelling health providers, as the small producers are scattered over hundreds of kilometers.
And our Canadian dollars are much more potent – have much more buying power - than in the countries the money goes to. So a huge shout out to everyone who helped promote Fair Trade Month. You helped make a difference to so many lives.
The other short news follows up on a few previous posts on water, on pallets and on labour issues, and if you have been following along the past few weeks, there has been discussion around water restrictions and the lack of pallets, price of pallets and price of wood.
All summed up by this one email from one of our melon suppliers in California:
Good Morning,
Product quality and production remain excellent with good brix and appearance.
We continue to struggle with labor this season. It has turned out to be the biggest challenge and we have had to eliminate many of our special packs due to lack of crews. We are caught up on our fields and hope to have more crews in the next few days. There are no pallets anywhere which is proving challenging as everyone is outbidding for wood.
On a side note for the Westside in Los Banos the water situation has gone from really bad to critical. We are getting the word that most if not all water deliveries may be stopped from late June to October. I will keep you informed as to how we will maneuver through this crisis.
Last week, talking about pallets, I mentioned we might just have to start building our own, so the day would never come where we had to turn down business because of a complete lack of pallets.
Ta da! Here is our ready to go pallet wood and the first production.
