Reply to Judith Kyst, Max Havelaar Denmark.
One wonders how much effort, Judith Kyst is making to avoid answering the questions I raised in my article the other day (Information, 11/12) Sadly, it is rather the rule than the exception.
Now she also raises a couple of untruths with her reply, and therefore, I shall continue to ask questions about what is really happening in the Fairtrade system. How can consumers have confidence in the system? Where does the money end? How do they check the tea plantations? And what efforts are they trying to do to “warn” or silence a critical journalist? What about real democracy in the tea plantations, that we have visited, etc etc.
I asked, for example, how it is possible that a Fairtrade-certified tea plantation in Sri Lanka for the last 14 years can continue to use pesticides, contrary to all international recommendations and – not least – Fair Trades own rules in this area. I received no reply.
I also asked what the consumer ombudsman would say to the fact, that the public can still buy Fairtrade products with a guarantee that is no more. No answer – apart from a vague comment on the fact they cannot force dealers to change the labels on the packaging.
I also raised the criticism with the former president of the Fair Trades own parent organization in Germany. She was fired because she demanded more professionalism in Fair Trades own control.
Again – no response from Judith Kyst.
And I asked how it is possible that the special Fairtrade councils (The Joint Bodies) in the plantations may have statutes that prevents a large proportion of workers participating in the democratic process because they can neither read nor write. The workers who can read and write, are not democratically elected, but “chosenâ€.
No answer.
The image of the little NGO which work so hard and does not have any spin machine is at best naive, verging on ignorance. At worst, more consumers are being mislead.
No, Judith Kyst: There is not only one press officer employed by the parent group in Germany. The parent organization’s latest annual report mentions at least two press officers and an external communications advisor. Two of them have even played a particularly active role in the entire process to produce as much spin as we usually see when it comes to any other multinational group.
The small NGO in Germany is a global company, which has a circulation of more than 33 million Danish kroner. Add to that the turnover of Max Havelaar Foundation in Denmark which is around. 7.5 million kroner, and the earnings of all the others (around 20 countries), which also has a local Fairtrade organization. There is – according to the report – at least 40 employees at the headquarters in Germany and 27 local liaison officers around the world. So 67 employees in the “small NGO”. In addition, we must add all the other employees, who manage the national Fairtrade offices.
Just a pity that they have no better track record of their projects in the international tea production. This is actually what has been promised and what consumers expect.
