‘When we translate the phrase “fair trade” in Arabic for farmers, they sometimes laugh! “How can trade be fair? In Lebanon, trade is always unfair. If you are not the winner, you are the loser.” So Benoit Berger, Director of Projects for the organization Fair Trade Lebanon (FTL), illustrated one of the several fundamental challenges that fair trade foods face in Lebanon. Not even local Lebanese producers – those who could stand to benefit the most from a market for Lebanese fair trade foods – necessarily get the idea.
Fair Trade Lebanon began out of a desire to alleviate the impovershed circumstances of the south and the many villages caught in conflicts over the Lebanese- Israeli border. International NGOs were distributing goods, but not ways to sustain growth. Studies conducted by founders Philippe Adaime, Samir Abdelmalak, Gabriel Debbane, Jad Bitar and Joanne Karkour back in 2003 revealed a tremendous regional potential for food processing. Lebanon might lack the capacity or climate for cash crops, but its people have the experience in processing and preserving what’s available at hand. Further study revealed that the best way to market locally produced foods in Europe and North America was via a fair trade label. ‘Fair trade’ came to Lebanon not as a foreign ethos, but as a home-grown strategy to reinvigorate the countryside.
The purpose of the organisation is straightforward: help local producers using traditional Lebanese methods to find new markets and receive a fair salary for their efforts. ‘We don’t want to go out and teach people to make fig jam; we want to identify people who already know, and help them adapt it to the modern market’, said Berger. This means helping to control producers’ costs, telling producers how to alter their methods to meet some international standards, providing packaging and discovering buyers. FTL follows a product from the fields in Baalbek to store shelves in Europe.
A family producing jam in the south, for instance, faces several problems in trying to sell their product in the Beirut market. First is just finding a shop that’ll buy. Second is remuneration. According to Firas Hamdan, Merchandising Manager for TSC supermarkets, local producers receive payment between 45 and 60 days after delivery. For the small producer, the time that passes from the initial capital they put into creating the product – whether it’s jam, olive oil or pickles – to receiving their earnings is oftentimes prohibitive. And some retailers are unscrupulous: ‘We know stores,’ notes Randa El Chemali, Marketing Coordinator for FTL, ‘that wait until the product is sold to pay back the producer... People don’t have easy transport to Beirut; they can’t do the financial follow-up that’s necessary.’ Third, local products are more expensive, by 15-20% in TSC stores.
Since its inception in 2006, FTL has grown alongside the very Lebanese producers it has helped to support. It’s developed with all the trimmings of a homegrown movement – both the good and bad. ‘Little by little we acquired experience, for instance, on packaging,’ Berger stated. ‘Olive oil bottles with a plastic cap can’t be exported to Europe; the European partner just says “no, we can’t sell this.” Then there’s new regulations for tea bags – you can’t use staples.’ It took time just to acquire the international credibility necessary just to market products abroad as fair trade. ‘We’ve just become a member of the World Fair Trade Organization, which took us a long time. When we first emailed them, they asked, “who are you?’”
FTL sees opportunities not just internationally, but locally as well. ‘When people taste our pomegranate molasses, they say, “Oh! It’s just like my grandmother would make!’” says Benoit. TSC Signature Downtown already carries local products, Hamdan notes. When asked about their prospects, he was adamant: ‘There’s a taste and quality difference between the commercial and homemade. We’re all Lebanese. We’ve lived in a traditional culture. That’s why people will buy these products.
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