2012 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF COOPERATIVES
17.02.2012 - With the collapse of financial institutions and the uncertain economic climate, more and more people are looking for alternative ways of doing business. The cooperative model offers just that. What’s more, cooperatives are an integral part of Fairtrade - a massive 75% of Fairtrade’s producer organizations are small farmer cooperatives. 2012 is the United Nation's International Year of Cooperatives, a good occasion to celebrate the joint achievements of cooperatives and Fairtrade.
Though it began as a niche industry, cooperatives now run the gamut from small groups to big business. Around one billion people worldwide are members of cooperatives, and revenues from the world’s largest 300 cooperative enterprises amounted to US$ 1.6 trillion in 2010, according to a Global300 report.
The cooperative model is so successful because it brings people together to achieve common needs and aspirations in a democratic way. By joining a cooperative, producers can increase their outputs, diversify production, and band together to transport goods to market, among many more benefits.
Cooperatives and Fairtrade
Cooperation has always been a fundamental principle of the Fair Trade movement. The first-ever Fairtrade labelled product – coffee sold in 1988 under Max Havelaar label in the Netherlands – came from cooperatives of small scale Mexican coffee farmers. More than 20 years on, there are over 320 Fairtrade coffee co-ops around the world. Together they received over €17 million in Fairtrade Premium money in 2009-10.
Fairtrade producer co-ops are jointly owned and democratically governed by the producers themselves. Fairtrade certification, through its price floor safety net, access to new markets and training on sound environmental and agricultural practices has often given cooperatives the boost they need to become viable businesses. Fairtrade cocoa, sugar, cotton, coffee, herbs and spices are all exclusively sourced from small producer organisations.
The Fairtrade Premium helps cooperatives live their values of social awareness, and self-responsibility, and also make improvements to their business. The Premium can be spent on business or community development projects and co-op members decide democratically how to use it. Last year over half of Fairtrade’s small producer groups opted for business development projects or investments in production and processing facilities, thereby increasing the quality and value of the products and making their business more effective and sustainable. Being Fairtrade certified has helped a cocoa group invest in education for its members' children, a group of Congolese women coffee farmers meet their basic needs, and a group of rooibos farmers become owner of their production means.
Fairtrade Cooperatives in South Africa
Given our historical legacy, South Africa's agricultural sector doesn't count as many cooperatives as many other regions in Africa - such as the massive cooperatives producing cocoa in West Africa or coffee and tea in East Africa. Nonetheless, we have few cooperatives that achieved Fairtrade certification in the past years. We currently have the Heiveld Cooperaitve and Wupperthal Organic in the Citrusdal area producing rooibos tea and the Eksteenskuil Agricultural Cooperative in the Northern Cape producing raisins.
Events will be held worldwide in 2012 to demonstrate the cooperative difference. To follow these events or even register your own, see the IYC 2012 website.
