Lee & Daughters - 李氏商行

Bananas, bananas and more bananas seem to lead the way for Fairtrade products.

These days, all sort of grocers sell produce coming from an ethical provenance and providing guarantee that the farmers have received a a decent payment for their harvest. This scheme is applied to the so-called third world producing Countries, mainly in the form of South Africa, Caribbean and South American countries. Given the recent economics dynamics it would be debatable if some of these countries can be classified as a third world anymore but I guess that is another conversation. We know the Fairtrade has worked for fruits as well as other products like coffee and chocolate. It is only needed to visit a Starbucks branch to realize that the are sourcing responsibly their beans and if it has worked with coffee drink, would it work with wine?

There are Fairtrade schemes in South Africa, Chile and Argentina, although it is probably not so easy to find in the market, unless if you live in the UK and it is February as it has been recently the month when the Fairtrade fortnight happens. Apart from that event, it is still possible to find Fairtrade wines and that was one of the areas that I further explored last time that I visited Chile.

One of the Fairtrade wines that I sourced for a group of restaurants come from Chile, in particular from the Los Robles cooperative. Maria Elenia is in charge of the cooperative and she explained to me how they operate. Each of the growers forming part of the scheme have around one hectare as maximum (approximately three times bigger than a football pitch), but some of them have just a fraction of that size.

Each one of them alone would get very little for their grapes and they would be at the mercy of supply demand as well as foreign exchange fluctuations. Instead, working together, they get advice on how to grow the grapes and they are in a contract for five years to supply Los Robles with grapes. They are paid the same price which is agreed as being reasonable and they have a bonus for quality. It is important to know they do not have incentive for quantity so the final product is of good quality. At the same time, the bonus goes to a pot that will fund projects for the community, such as sponsoring studies for teenagers from the community, specific medical treatment, etc.

In the photography above, I am the third one on the left in a meeting with growers discussing the harvest and what projects they have for this year. Chilean born, Maria Elenia spent part of her adulthood in exile during the dictatorship of Pinochet and she is now glad to be back, working with the community and bringing back her overseas experience in business management. She is hugged  on the photo and it shows the appreciation that the growers have towards her.