Following in the footsteps of products like coffee and bananas, Fair Trade flowers are gaining in popularity with consumers concerned about the story behind the product.
For this month’s edition of Point of View, we spoke with Alvaro Baena, president of Golden Rose Canada Inc., a floral wholesaler that recently became Fair Trade Certified. This designation means it is one of the few wholesalers across Canada that can offer retailers Fair Trade Certified flowers.
In Canada, TransFair Canada is the country’s only non-profit, independent certification organization that promotes and certifies products as Fair Trade Certified. The Fair Trade program applies to a number of products, including flowers, and works to ensure that farmers and workers in developing countries receive fair compensation for their products and labour, use sustainable environmental practices, improve social services and invest in local economic infrastructure. Both the farm and the Fair Trade Certified licensee (or wholesaler) are continuously audited to ensure that these standards are achieved and that the Fair Trade Certified products are properly labelled and priced.
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| Alvaro Baena, president of Golden Rose Canada |
When asked why Golden Rose made the effort to become Fair Trade Certified, Golden Rose’s Baena says the decision was made after researching a number of certification options. “When I looked at all the certifications available, Fair Trade was the only one in my opinion that made sense.” He appreciates the fact that TransFair has an auditing branch in Canada, as many of the other certifications are done locally at the farm level (usually in South America) or in Europe. “If I was a consumer and I saw that a product was certified in Germany, that really doesn’t tell me anything about the certification here in Canada,” says Baena.
The wholesaler began looking into the certification process about a year ago. “Slowly we’ve received several inquires over the past two years [about Fair Trade flowers] and the voices started to become louder,” says Baena. Before Golden Rose Canada became Fair Trade Certified, Canadian retailers only had access to Fair Trade Certified flowers on the west coast.
As a Fair Trade Certified floral wholesaler, Golden Rose Canada can now purchase flowers from any Fair Trade Certified farm. The wholesaler imports products from certified farms in both Ecuador and Colombia. At the wholesale level, Golden Rose has to display the product separately with proper identification, manage the chemicals used around the flowers and charge a premium for the product. Baena says Fair Trade flowers from Golden Rose will cost at least 30 to 40 per cent more at the wholesale level than regular-priced flowers. This premium helps to compensate the under-paid farmer and workers at the farm level. “This is very important. In our industry, we see product being sold for less than it’s coming in for. This means that someone is not being paid for their work and it’s most likely the grower,” says Baena.
As part of the TransFair certification program, Golden Rose has to submit its financial numbers every quarter to TransFair Canada. The agency matches the report with the grower’s report to make sure the proper premium is collected on labelled products. After a certain time period, Golden Rose will be audited by TransFair and if the company passes the audit, it will continue to be certified.
Currently, 20 per cent of the product at Golden Rose is certified and this includes carnations, mini carnations roses and baby’s breath. Baena hopes that, as more growers become certified, more Fair Trade Certified varieties will become available.
Baena also hopes that by offering Fair Trade Certified flowers to retailers, this will help give the company a strong position in the market. When retailers purchase Fair Trade Certified flowers from Golden Rose, they will have the opportunity to display the Fair Trade Certified flowers with the Fair Trade logo under the licence of Golden Rose. “The logo makes it very obvious to the consumer,” says Baena. “Retailers can use this as a tool to increase their margins.”
In turn, customers who purchase the labelled flowers will be able to go online and see directly where the flowers came from. “There’s a complete link between growers, importers, retailers and consumers,” says Baena. “This gives us an opportunity, as an industry, to offer more.”
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