Ethical trade

For the past two years, the FPEF, as a member of Fruit South Africa (FSA), managed an ethical trade programme in South Africa; aimed at transformation on farms. Exporters played a significant role to date in driving ethical compliance on farms, whilst Stuart Symington, CEO of the FPEF, provided leadership, support and guidance to the portfolio. In the past year, the FPEF participated in the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) Section 7 investigation into the feasibility of establishing a multi-stakeholder body to drive ethical trade in agriculture. The Section 7 process is reaching finality and the intent is to make a constructive recommendation to the Minister of Agriculture regarding the way forward. In the meantime, the fruit industry is committed to continue its own ethical trade programme in collaboration with various stakeholders. At the beginning of 2010, FSA identified certain goals for its ethical programme. A six-point Ethical Trade Plan was devised to realise these goals. The goals include: ensuring that the industry drives its own ethical trade portfolio in a professional manner; improving labour conditions on farms; helping to manage commercial risks allied to ethical trade matters; giving retailers confidence in the reputation of their South African grower supply base and reducing the number (and costs) of audits for growers.

The focus of the Ethical Trade Plan will be:

1. Driving a risk based auditing programme in which 5% of randomly selected exporting farms will be audited annually. The outcomes will be used to identify training and development needs. Whilst the audits are not the prime focus of the FSA ethical programme, they supply the industry with data and insights into growers’ needs.
2. Avoiding duplication of ethical audits by persuading all local and international retailers to take part in the FSA audit programme.
3. Developing a South African data system to capture audited results and supply information and trends to the industry. This could also be used to record training data.
4. Communicating the importance of the FSA ethical programme to all stakeholders through road shows, television, regional growers’ association meetings, study groups and newsletters.
5. Implementing programmes, based on audited results, to raise awareness, build capacity and use for training; and
6. Encouraging ethical practices along the supply chain.

In line with the six-point plan, the portfolio participated in a number of activities in 2010:

South African fruit growers’ ethical trade handbook
FSA is working with various retailers in the United Kingdom to develop an ethical trade handbook for growers. This will be a user-friendly guide on the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) Base Code, and how to implement its principles in the workplace. It will also provide guidelines on the auditing process and the support available to help growers with issues of compliance. A CD containing policies and procedures will be part of the package.

Tesco training fund
Tesco made funding available to its suppliers to support training on their farms. The FPEF is managing distribution of the funds. Application forms and a training register were sent to exporters, since they are ideally placed to encourage suppliers to make use of the subsidy.

Developing a dispute resolution mechanism for farms
FSA and various stakeholders have been working on a Tesco/ United Nations/Harvard University initiative to develop a dispute resolution mechanism for farms. The initiative provides training for employers and employees on dispute resolution; encourages participation in worker representative committees, and ultimately supports channels of communication between management and employees. A pilot project has been launched on four farms in the Western Cape. At the end of the pilot period, a training package with relevant training materials will be made available.

Labour broker project
It was thought necessary to engage labour brokers in addressing issues in a joint initiative, since this area was identified as one of high risk in the industry. In August, more than eighty brokers attended a highly successful workshop for the Southern and Western Cape, which was organised by the FSA. At this workshop, they acknowledged the need to organise and drive their own transformation and the industry would do everything it can to support this initiative.

Management and leadership development programme
The viability of a training programme to develop leadership and management is currently investigated as a FPEF and ASDA joint initiative. The aim would be to assist growers to identify potential leaders (supervisors, managers) in the workplace and to facilitate the process by providing the necessary training and mentorship.

Agri-TV link-up
Agri-TV conducted an interview with FSA on its ethical trade programme, which was broadcast in August. The concept of developing a short DVD series for television, Ethical trade, the South African Way, is being explored. The series can be converted into a training package that would be made available to growers at low cost.

Emerging farmers
The FPEF believes there is a need to engage with emerging fruit farmers around its ethical trade programme. Discussions will be held with relevant stakeholders to identify needs and find a way to incorporate it with current improvement programmes focused on ethical compliance.

Data capturing
This year, FPEF members gave significant feedback to Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX) on the self-assessment questionnaire that is being developed. Exporters are rightfully critical of this questionnaire and the fact that their concerns have not been taken seriously in the past. We will continue to exert pressure on SEDEX to provide us with an appropriate tool that adds value to the industry. The FPEF is also investigating the possibility of a South African data capturing and reporting system to capture audited results and supply information and trends to the industry. Such a system must be able to interface with SEDEX and Business Social Compliance International (BSCI) and allow for mutual information exchange.

Managing ethics across the supply chain
The FPEF is committed to drive ethical practices along the supply chain, which include addressing buying practices in the international community. A process for tabling issues and allowing discussions with stakeholders is investigated with the ETI (UK). The Commonwealth organised a symposium in September to discuss issues around buying practices and Stuart Symington was asked to give his input at the symposium.