Statement of the Fairtrade Labelling Organization International on the incorrect accusations of Father Shay Cullen

Father Shay Cullen, Director of the Preda Foundation on the Philippines is the author of an article which contains a lot of serious, but incorrect accusations against the Fairtrade Foundation, the British Labelling Initiative of the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). The article was published in Great Britain and in the Philippines. In May, during a round-table discussion of the Dachverband Entwicklungspolitik Baden-WŸrttemberg (deab) in Stuttgart, Father Shay Cullen repeated verbally the wrong accusations. In this event TRANSFAIR Germany was represented by Dieter Overath.

Father Shayıs main statement is that the Fairtrade Foundation had encouraged the Sainsburyıs supermarkets to remove the dried Preda-Mangoes from the sale as this product did not wear the Fairtrade-label.

This allegation is simply incorrect. When Sainsburyıs addressed themselves to the Fairtrade Foundation in order to talk about the Preda-Mangoes, the Fairtrade Foundation was the one who asked the supermarkets to go on with selling Preda-Mangoes. The Fairtrade Foundation even had several talks with Sainsburyıs trying to convince them that Preda ­ as a longstanding member of the IFAT ­ is an accepted Fairtrade Organization. The Fairtrade Foundation has never interfered when it was about products of IFAT members.

Furthermore Father Shay accuses the Fairtrade Foundation that, after having removed Predaıs products from the shelves, they tried to ³sell² the Fairtrade-label to them. He says that the Fairtrade Foundation would like to make money at Predaıs small farmersı expense.

Also this accusation is not correct. FLO and its 20 member organizations are registered as societies for public welfare in their respective countries. Certainly, we believe that every Fair Trade Organization should independently be inspected, even so the Fairtrade Foundation always has respected Predaıs status as member of the IFAT and has accepted their products as ³fairly traded². The Fairtrade Foundation has never put the Preda Foundation under pressure to be certified.

The FLO-System is open for every organization which would like to be certified and which is able to fulfil the international standards for Fair Trade. We do not expel anyone, do not force any person to join us and will not criticize anyone, who has decided not to be certified.

The certification costs are charged by FLO-Cert, an independent certification authority. These costs are meant for covering the certification expenses and for guaranteeing a certification system which is extremely precise, effective and transparent, orientated on the small farmersı needs. This is also considered by the Bio-Certification System for which the cooperatives annually pay costs for inspection and certification as well. The FLO has developed a producer certification funds for small producer groups which, because of the expenses, have difficulties to participate in the Fairtrade-System. So, 75 per cent of the expenses of the producer groups could be waived as they will be financed by the funds.

Our efforts to clarify this matter with Father Shay in a conversation have been so far without success. We regret this very much as up to now the Fairtrade Foundation has always kept up very good relationship with members of the IFAT. After all, we do hope that this situation could be solved friendly.