2010, Bring it On !

A New Year is awaited by the whole team. We’ve reorganized our office and painted some bright colors on the walls. We sent the big load of old labels and carton packs for recycling.
We got much more space now and are intending to hit 2010 with a bunch of great new ideas and challenges.

• Marketing and Sales
• Logistic and Distribution
• Projects and Partnerships

All of the above, each one after the other, and all of them together are going to boost our mission.


Year 2010 will represent our first steps into the Lebanese market. It will be a year of Sales with a capital S. We are targeting the regional market and reinforcing our presence in Europe and North America.

Year 2010 will define a new and more complex distribution strategy. Our team will be even more interdependent, each person operating as a vital link in the chain.

Year 2010 is a campaign of wake-up calls. Our land is our future and in FTL we are developing long-term projects and partnerships that will allow us to strengthen and measure our social impact on our cooperatives, their families, their lands and their communities.


Finally, Year 2010 is a year closer to You. Share our enthusiasm and be part of the adventure. Our backbone is a new and young generation that is conscious about reality and willing to stand up and face it.

ESCWA : Workshop on Delivery of e-Services in Civil Society

28th and 29th of December 2009 : Fair Trade Lebanon is present at the two-day workshop on e-services organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, one of the five regional commissions created by the United Nations.

This workshop is mainly targeting NGOs and aiming at developing their E-Marketing and E-Services in a very competitive information society : Show cases and presentations are offering advice and tricks about reinforcing websites, promoting services, building trust, selling products online etc.

FTL sends you some warm warm wishes !

Safflower Oil rocks!

Safflower oil is a type of vegetable oil that is becoming increasingly popular among people who are very conscious about their health. It is a form of oil that is taken out from the seeds of the safflower plant.

Safflower oil can be used as cooking oil, a salad dressing and much more Fair Trade Lebanon promotes and sells safflower oil produced in Deir Ahmar and extracted in a mechanical process (thus, using a natural expeller), which helps in retaining all the naturally found ingredients in safflower oil.

Essential ingredients present in safflower oil:

• Highest source of polyunsaturated fats found in any other type of vegetable oil, i.e. almost 79% polyunsaturated fatty acids (linoleic acid)
• 13 % of monounsaturated fatty acids (oleic acid)
• Only 8% of saturated fatty acids.
• Omega-6 fatty acids, cis-linoleic acid, vitamin E.

Safflower Oil Benefits:

Body:

• Polyunsaturated fat helps in strengthening the cell membranes
• Eliminates the excess fat accumulated in the body
• Helps in the reduction of the level of cholesterol in the blood which reduces the risk of heart diseases
• Recommended to obese people suffering from diabetes
• Helps in regularizing menstrual cycles.

Hair:

• Promotes hair growth: A regular safflower oil massage is great for healthy looking hair
• Odourless oil, mild, with a very light texture, absorbs easily into the scalp
• People with excess hair fall can find effective hair re-growth with the application of safflower oil on the hair.

Skin:

• Helps in moisturizing the skin, especially during winter.
• Recommended for acne treatment. Also helps in getting rid of other skin problems like scars, wrinkles, etc.

Safflower


In France and Europe, Artisanat SEL website, order it here.
In Lebanon, available on call at: 05- 952 153

Ain Ebel...still wearing her white gown

Ain Ebel is a small village in the South of Lebanon. Also known as Arrouset el Jnoub , the "bride of the South", because of its people's joie de vivre and its beauty.

Although in 2006 the village was severely damaged by the Israeli attacks, you can still feel today a profound sense of tranquillity and serenity as you arrive there (the army check points and the UNIFIL don’t even disturb it). You’d spend hours staring at the green hills surrounding you and talking to down-to-earth people who feel strongly attached to their land and family.

Fair Trade Lebanon was there yesterday as we were hosting a training session in a cooperative about the basics of hygiene and food safety.
This session was financed and supported by the French Embassy who agreed to accompany one of the development projects we are undertaking and which concerns four of the partner cooperatives we work with.

Our field trips remind us of the responsibility that rests everyday on our shoulders. We are constantly seeking new markets abroad to expand our outreach in order to help these women and cooperatives produce more and all year long. We should all feel implicated in this duty. Because it is our duty and not a choice, it is a reason that I invite you all to embrace and support. Trust me, there are still people out there trying to do good.

Help us talk about the beauty of this land. Help us send out a strong and united message about the need to change the rules in the conventional trading system. Help us protect our small producers who get paid peanuts when they enter a monopolized market that pulls them further down from where they already are.

I was strongly touched, hurt and enraged when one of our partners, a dedicated woman, had a terrible experience with a supermarket chain. The latter did not respect their contract agreement, barely paid the coop 20% of the total merchandise and sent her back some of the products in despicable unsellable conditions, damaged and broken.

Mabrouk! Gift basket won by a Facebook member

After receiving numerous correct answers, we are proud to announce that Rhea, a member of our facebook group, won a gift basket of "Terroirs du Liban" products by answering our quiz (Name a village in Lebanon where olive oil is produced).

NB: The olive oil we bottle /market comes from producers located in Kleyaa and Kfaryachit.

Infusions and more...

In Lebanon we have a large variety of wild flowers and roses, all known for their treatment virtues.

In 2007, we decided to launch with a partner cooperative in the South of Lebanon, a selection of finely chosen herbal infusions to send on the market. Consumers in the West liked the concept of boiling the dried leaves and flowers, draining them and then serving the mixture.

However, we noticed that the demand is still higher for the traditional instant tea technique, and decided to raise funds in order to equip the cooperative with a tea bagging machine and proceed with the herbal activity.

By bagging the dried flowers, we will launch herbal boxes for people to buy and discover several flavors at once: Wild Mint, Violet, Sage, Hyssop, Ash, Oregano flower…

L'orient le Jour and Transfair Canada

The Lebanese journalist, Rana Andraos, from L’Orient Le Jour, has a chat with the FTL president and publishes an article in October 2009 about the grounds of the organization and its strategies. She highlights that other Lebanese organizations are also raising awareness for fair trade. The CRTDA in particular, Collective for Research and Training on Development Action.

Transfair Canada later posts the article online on their website!! You can view it here.

The Beqaa Valley...blessed by the Lords

Beqaa (Arabic: البقاع, "valley"; also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ or Becaa) is a fertile valley in east Lebanon. The Romans considered the Beqaa Valley to be a major agricultural source, and today it remains Lebanon’s most important farming region.

You can’t help but be mesmerized as you walk around the Beqaa. These pictures were taken by my colleague Benoit Berger who tries to bring out the best of the places we visit in our field trips. There is a lot to be done in the Beqaa, a great potential to be responsibly developed and enhanced.

Flashback : NDU conference

Awareness raising is vital and we are dedicating several events for that. Our presence at the Notre-Dame University on the 10th of November 2009 was organized by the Club of International Relations.

Time Out Beirut Magazine : FTL basket as a gift idea

Time Out Beirut is talking about us! Check us out in their December 09 issue.

This winter, offer your loved ones a basket of 100% Lebanese goods, provided straight from the heart of our land. By purchasing this gift you are supporting and encouraging producers who are thriving every day to develop their businesses and empower their communities.

Baskets available within 48h:
You can choose your desired products from Syrups, Jams, Wine, Olive Oil...
Prices vary from 35$ to 100$
Delivery may also be provided

Call us for any further information or order:
05 952 153

Buttons : We Love FTL !

We designed 3 buttons (or pins as we call them here in Lebanon) to give out:

-In Fair Trade We Trust

-I love FTL

-Fair Trade Lebanon…Improving Lives

Monday 7th: last day…this is how we did it

The organizers decided to ask the participants to define all the topics that they would like to tackle regarding the establishment of the network.

Each one at a time started to suggest large subjects…’the expectations from an Arab network” , “its status and internal organization” “the development of national networks and their relation with the Arab one” and so on…

We then dispatched ourselves into smaller groups, each group addressing one of the previous specific topics. Ideas and suggestions were out on paper and later represented to the whole crowd.

From FTL, we suggested the discussion about the motivations behind such a network and its first-steps agenda. I personally animated the discussion in the smaller group and was able to collect a bunch of suggestions.

With Mr. Mona El-Sayed from Fair Trade Egypt and Dr. Moussa Rabadi from the FTDC*, we encouraged the establishment of a provisional agenda with deadlines to be followed.

For instance:

-Participating in international Fair Trade forums under the same umbrella

-Defining an Arab Fair Trade Day that we would celebrate each year

-Creating a sort of Arab Shop in touristic areas in our countries

-Developing a unified Product (with bits from all handicrafts)

-and more

The outcome of this forum will certainly appear in the set up of a steering committee that will meet again in a month or two in order to define and finalize a strategic plan for year 2010.

*Fair Trade Development Center (Palestine)

Jordan Forum : Discovering alternative solutions

Left to right: Ms Eman Hadweh, Dr Moussa Rabadi, Randa, Mr. Benoit Berger, Mr. Hussam Jubran

This forum is building contacts, creating potential partnerships and projects. I noticed that regardless of some minimal hesitation and doubt, the general impression remains the need to develop together a long-term investment in the region. Whether it lies on coordination, exchange of expertise or South-South trading.

Adonis Valley : Organic farming in Lebanon

In brief : Mr. Fady Daw is a pioneer in organic farming in Lebanon and one of the partner producers that has been working with Fair Trade Lebanon for 2 years now.

His journey has been everything but easy and proves that setting foot in the organic business needs rigorous work, determination, long-term vision and mostly financial support.

Fady is an agricultural engineer who founded is organic food processing company, Adonis Valley, in 2005.

He joined us in this 3-day forum to testify about his experience in organic farming and his first steps in Fair Trade.

His product line is certified organic according to the EU standards; Part of the raw material is cultivated in the Adonis Valley itself while the other part is bought from underprivileged Lebanese farmers (who necessarily produce organic as well).

Fady Daw uses methods that are respectful of the environment and engages himself in a humanitarian cause through his relations with his own suppliers.

Fair Trade: Promoting national identities

Beyond social and community improvement, Fair Trade embraces identities. In the so-called “Village Planet” and globalization, Fair Trade aims on promoting people with traditional know-hows and profound culture and history. All done through ethical and dignified principles.

The First Arab Fair Trade Forum

We are gathered here in Amman, Jordan, from the 5th until the 7th of December, under the theme of “Positioning the Arab Region on the World’s Fair Trade Map”. The goal of this forum is for the current Arab fair trade actors to get to know each other, share experiences and develop a solid regional strategy that would allow us to have a say and an influence on an international scale.

Right now there is no real presence of an Arab movement that operates as a solid core in the trading system.
Hence, we have the intention of implementing a strategy that will hopefully reinforce a potential regional coordination.

The first day of the forum mainly consisted in presenting several show cases: Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon.
We are actually benefiting from an exchange of expertise, realizing that each experience has a unique background and important challenges. In Palestine for instance, producers encounter unlimited obstacles due to the lack of sales, the pressure in their country, the export complexity etc.
Jordan, on the other hand, chose two specific fields of Fair Trade, Tourism and Handicrafts. As for Fair Trade Egypt, a beautiful variety of handicrafts is being supported and marketed, for almost 11 years now!
Benoit Berger and I have presented the Lebanese show case and set forth our activities in Fair Trade Lebanon. We decided to introduce a facet of the Lebanese reality while mentioning the unfortunate decline of the agriculture sector and its uneven national development strategy.

The aim is to take all of these challenges and turn them into opportunities. How can the Arab network be developed in order to offer more than just a title? How can our weaknesses become a field of experiment and power?

Monday is a crucial day in the establishment of the AFTN (Arab Fair Trade Network) and the finalization of the action plan and responsibilities.

Fair Trade Lebanon, the show is on!

Created in 2006, Fair Trade Lebanon is an NGO that aims to improve the livelihoods of the most disadvantaged people in rural Lebanon through fair, sustained and direct transactions.

How we operate:

•Identify products with Lebanese uniqueness
•Search for small production units in remote regions
•Control and improve quality of the products
•Propose additional equipments and trainings
•Provide access to market
•Preserve in Lebanon the value added from food processing and packaging

I've been meaning to start this blog a couple of months earlier when I first started my internship, in September 2009, but for some reason I kept postponing it...Anyhow, this post is a very quick introduction because tonight we are heading to Jordan to participate in the First Arab Fair Trade Forum and I am a bit busy preparing our presentation! More info will be online real soon ; )