ISI to promote fair trade products in its 90 stores

CEBU, Philippines - Islands Souvenirs Inc. (ISI) joins the worldwide campaign on promoting fair trade by partnering with Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI) and Southern Partners Fair Trade Corporation (SPFTC).

ISI president Jonathan Jay P. Aldeguer vowed to provide a space for fair trade products in all 90 ISI stores nationwide in the next few months.

“We will make fair trade member producers and farmers direct suppliers for ISI,” said Aldeguer in an interview.

Fair Trade is a global movement aimed at alleviating poverty, providing opportunities to disadvantaged producers, ensuring fair and equitable working conditions, and helping address climate change while generating profits.

Aldeguer said ISI stores will become an “incubation” venue for the farmers to gain huge market access, instead of being limited to providing products and food produce to designated Fair Trade Centers that are limited in numbers.

He said ISI will be needing products such as bags, food products especially organic produce that will be supplied by the Fair Trade members not just from Cebu, but all over the country.

According to Aldeguer, ISI will also be coordinating closely with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to provide these fair trade member farmers and handicraft producers with technical know-how, specifically on packaging and standard quality for them to produce products that are world-class.

“If successful, we will make them direct suppliers of ISI’s product requirements,” Aldeguer said.

ISI vows to adhere to the Fair Trade standard which is to give farmers the true price-value of their produce, thereby improving their way of life, eliminating the existence of middle-men.

“We want to develop the cottage type industry in the country,” he said adding that with the partnership of APFTI, ISI will be able to help develop the micro players, especially the farmers.

Recently, SPFTC in partnership with Southern Partners and Fair Trade Corporation (SPFTC) opened its first Fair Trade Shop in Cebu, to jumpstart its advocacy in encouraging consumers to patronize locally produced products, instead of patronizing imported items.

“Our objective is to educate the 92-million Filipinos to patronize fair trade products and help in the real economic development,” said SPFT president and executive director Vicente Roaring.

Part of this advocacy is to promote organic farming nationwide, especially in areas where supply of fertile soil is abundant.

SPFTC envisions at further strengthening the fair trade movement in the county with more local producers adhering to the fair trade principles of fair wage, fair price, transparency, capacity building, no child labor, and creating opportunities for the marginalized sector, among others.

The fair trade industry worldwide was estimated at US$5 billion in 2008, with an average growth of 42 percent in the last two years.