Reply of Ian Bretman: PREDA DRIED FRUIT

Subject: PREDA DRIED FRUIT
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 19:13:39 +0100
From: "ian bretman" <ian.bretman@fairtrade.org.uk>
To: <predair@info.com.ph>

Dear Father Shay

My name is Ian Bretman and I am Deputy Director of The Fairtrade Foundation in the UK. We are a member of FLO International and manage the FLO label in Britain. Although we have never met I have heard a lot about you as I have been involved in the fair trade movement since 1986 when I joined Oxfam Trading and I remember that we had the pleasure of trading with Preda at that time when I worked with Carol Wills on the Bridge programme.

I am writing because I am absolutely horrified at the accusations against the Fairtrade Foundation that you have made in the article reproduced below, in respect of the dried fruit products that are marketed by Kestrel Foods and stocked by, among others, Sainsbury supermarkets. I note that you refer to “one labelling company in the UK” but as we are the only Fairtrade Labelling organisation in Britain it is quite clear that you are referring to us – and we are not a “company” but a registered not-for-profit voluntary organisation with a declared mission to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development in developing countries.

It is totally incorrect to say that we persuaded the supermarket to stop selling your products – in fact I personally have had several conversations with the supermarket asking them specifically not to remove the products from their shelves and have explained to them that as a longstanding member of IFAT, Preda is an acknowledged fair trade organisation. This is despite the fact that this potentially undermined our interests and the interests of other FLO-certified producers by opening the door to unregulated claims of fair trade status.

Furthermore my staff and I have had several meetings with Kestrel Foods to discuss how your organisation and products might be certified by FLO so that they could carry the FLO Fairtrade label which is the only such certification recognised by British retailers and consumers. In all of these discussions, the primary concern of both the Fairtrade Foundation and Kestrel Foods has been to ensure that we did not add unnecessarily to your costs through the certification process, as we understand that this would be at the expense of the good work done by the Preda Foundation. On several occasions we have postponed action that might create problems for you, even when it has not been in the interests of our organisation’s work to do so. I am also aware that FLO and IFAT have been discussing ways of making it easier for IFAT members to access the FLO certification system and I have asked Sainsbury and Kestrel Foods to be patient in allowing this process to take its course.

I really don’t see what more I or my colleagues could have done to protect the interests of Preda in this matter and so your accusations of “extortion and illegal practice” are extremely upsetting. It is bad enough that our actions to support you are unrecognized but to be accused of such things in a published newspaper article without even having the courtesy of a direct approach from you to discuss these privately and to give our response is incredibly unprofessional. It shows a complete lack of transparency, respect and dialogue that are supposed to be our shared principles.

I hope that you will retract these untrue and unjustified allegations immediately to the journals that published this article and to your e-mail circulation list.

It remains the case that the FLO certification label would assist you and Kestrel Foods in developing the market for your dried fruit products and I hope that we may be able to discuss this in a constructive and collaborative way to ensure that, as with all our work, we can extend the benefits of fair trade to more and more farmers and workers in the poorer countries of the world.

I look forward to hearing from you.



Ian Bretman
Deputy Director
Direct Phone: 020 7440 7670



The Fairtrade Foundation, Suite 204 16 Baldwin's Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7405 5942 ~ Fax: +44 (0) 20 7405 5943
website: www.fairtrade.org.uk