Mr. Arun Raaste - Director, International Resources for Fairer Trade (IRFT).

What is the concept of Fair Trade in India ?

Fair trade is a global concept. What it means is that a producer gets fair prices, and there is long term relationship between buyers in developed countries and producers in developing countries.

Fair price means all the input cost plus reasonable amount of profit. Fair Trade aims at creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers and supporting the poorest producers.

Also it takes care of Transparency and accountability, capacity building, payment of Fair Prices, Gender equity, healthy and safe working conditions and ensuring that environment is protected. Basically a western concept that has now come in to India.

When we are promoting Fair Trade within the country, the potential target group is Yuppies, Techies, High-income group people, Diplomats or people who are generally travelling abroad.

Generally in Fair trade scenario, producers are based in South (developing countries) and buyers are from North (rich countries). But at IRFT we are propagating fair trade within our country. We feel that people within country who can afford fair trade products would support Fair Trade if they know the cause behind it. For e.g. people living in localities like JVPD or Malabar Hill, they will not mind shelling out extra money for a cause.

Within domestic market, even if 1% of Indian population goes for Fair trade then probably it will be bigger then the European fair trade population. It will have a huge impact. At the end of the trade you are taking care of environment, sustainability, and all other components of the production chain. In effect you are helping your own country by buying fair trade products.

How is the concept treated globally ?

It started as an initiative of the civil society. This Civil society's initiative was backed by churches, trade unions etc.

They perceive it as something, which brings in more humane and social angle of equality.

Fair Trading organisations are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and campaigning for changes in the rules and practices of conventional trade.

Can you say something about IRFT ?

International Resources for Fairer Trade was established in October 1995. IRFT aims to develop sustainable livelihoods through trade.

Sustainable livelihoods relate to greater incomes, greater employment and long-term economic possibilities and mobility out of poverty. Objectives of IRFT are to support development of Community Based Enterprises as sustainable business entities, and to encourage and monitor socially responsible behaviour amongst business houses.

The national and international association of IRFT includes IFAT, Alliance 21, Asian Coalition for SMEs, Asian Fair Trade Forum etc. Traidcraft UK are our international partners.

When the organisation was started there was only one person but today we have 15 people working in Mumbai. We opened another office in Hydrabad last year and 5 people are working there. We are opening more offices in this financial year.

Why the name of the organisation is International Resources for Fairer Trade and not Indian Resources for fairer Trade ?

As I said Fair Trade is an international concept. It is not an Indian or National concept. What we are trying to do is to get the best resources internationally to promote fair trade in India.

Can you a throw a light on your programme areas and services ?

There are two major programme areas and services that we felt will be necessary over a period of time. They are Community Business Support programme and Ethical Business Promotion Programme.

Community Business Support (CBS) works with community based enterprises developing them into sustainable businesses and acts as a one stop consultancy offering holistic inputs. The objectives of CBS are to improve business performance of Community Based Enterprises, to make them sustainable and to ensure sustainable livelihoods for disadvantaged artisans and farmers.

Ethical Business Promotion programme has two aspects: Audit Consultancy and Capacity building. The objective of EBP is to encourage and monitor socially responsible behaviour amongst Indian businesses. We work with commercial business in sensitising them about their developmental responsibility. We seek to work with business all over Indian Sub continent - helping them understand the ethical dimensions of their work.

We chart out creative and sustainable ways of improving wages, working conditions and better health and safety measures. We believe that by doing this we would enable the numerous factory workers in the unorganised sector and the multitude of home workers in Indian Sub continent - to lead a decent life.

Do you conduct training programmes for corporates in Fair Trade ?

We have not attempted training programmes for corporates but we had organised a workshop in the beginning of March where we introduced the concept to certain corporates.

What are you doing on advocacy front ?

Advocating ethical trade is an important element of EBP. We continuously engage in dialogues with ethical trade association worldwide. We attended several conferences nationally and internationally.

We are trying to promote Asian Standards for SMEs so in that regard a new coalition, Asian coalition for SME sector is formed. IRFT is one of the promoters of the coalition.

We want to promote Asian certification and award. Internationally Oxfam plays major role in advocacy and policy changes but within the country we are the only one. Advocacy and promotion is the area in India, which is not well understood, but internationally it is well understood.

Internationally they do value our opinion from South. As far as advocacy is concerned it done at different levels like Government, media within the country and outside. Oxfam is very strong and they are supporting us.

Now UNCTAD has dedicated one full day to Fair Trade.

How can NGOs working on issues like Children, women, Education can link Fair Trade ?

When you look at the basic eight principles of Fair Trade, it talks of issues related to discrimination, Gender, management.

When you are looking at Rights of Women, you are treating men and women equally, which is one of the basic principles of fair trade.

When you are looking at discrimination on account of age, fair trade buyer ensures that a child goes to school, and person who is employing pays for the school. People, who are working in the field of child labour or Gender issues, are promoting fair trade in turn.

Can you talk about IRFT social Audit programme ?

IRFT social audit programme is mainly catering to two different segments. One is European Retail Chains as they source from India and they want their code of conducts to be audited. And second are suppliers in India small and micro enterprises and monitoring their working conditions.

We ensure that social and economic working conditions of workers are taken care of. At some places working conditions are really bad. And we try to bring them in line with the 8 principles of fair trade. We ensure that they actually pay what is shown in the payrolls.

We also keep a check on the safety standards, environment, child labour issues etc. This is at times done by informal visits and talks with staff members of the organisation giving true picture of the organisation.

There are many ways you can check, checking in pay rolls, production cycles, working hours etc. We do audits based on ILO standard. These suppliers at times need training. And we do conduct training programmes for them on code of conducts.

Can you give an example of Ethical Trade in Indian Context ?

Any retailer who is buying from India, his code off conduct is totally followed by a supplier. That is a typical case study.

Another would be like any one in India who is not exporting but wants to follow global standards.

There are some Indians who are doing it. For e.g. Denz Enterprise, who is not exporting, and legally and financially not bound to follow code of conducts but still they are doing it.

How is IRFT helping product sale ?

In remote areas, organisations do not have access to market information, as there is no communication links like Internet connectivity. What IRFT does is provide information of buyer's requirements to suppliers- we match make.

That's how people sitting in remote places in Rajasthan or Tamilnadu are in position to connect with the buyers across the country. We facilitate participation of community business enterprises in exhibitions or trade fairs.

Last year we sent two groups from Bhopal and Bikaner to China for sale of Handicrafts items in an exhibition. China is a huge country with huge market, and also there is a craze for Indian goods at this point of time. So we tap good off track market, it is not always necessary to go to UK or US.

We subsidised their cost. Whatever they carried from here to China everything was sold and they got many enquiries along with them. When we told them that next year we would not subsidise your cost. They said that we would go on their own. This opened opportunities for them in exploring other world markets.

We are linking people within the country also. We help producers connect straight to the consumer points. In Bombay there is always a shortage of pulses. There is this organisation called Pradan from Delhi. They are working in different areas.

They are also working in Jharkhand. Last year a group with whom they work had surplus of pulses but no buyers. We helped them to connect with Apna Bazar in Bombay who purchased the pulses. .

We don't do marketing because we do not want to be commission agents or one more layer in the supply chain.

How do you cope up with global technology ?

To make any product of international or national standard, use of technology is inevitable these days. We do try to upgrade ourselves with technologies. We have some engineers working with us and provide us necessary support.

Do you expect media to play any role ?

Huge.

There are many success stories in the country, they should propagate it. Propagation of concepts and ideas is very necessary.

There are some success stories like two civil society organisation in Andhra and Orissa entering into barter system and no one has talked about it.

There are some very good factories in India where you cannot make out whether you are in third world or first world.

So media can play a role for bringing in awareness and of sensitising people.

What are your future plans and directions ?

Fair trade advocacy and promotion and setting up Asian standard and are short-term future plans. We would also look at replication of IRFT BDS Centres across the country.