CERT Newsletter items March 2011_final 1 - FLO-CERT GmbH

FLO-CERT NEWS
01/2011
FLO-CERT has been restructured
Over the past seven years FLO-CERT has managed to establish itself as a
credible certification organisation serving the Fairtrade movement through
certification of farmers’ organisations and traders.
Rapid changes in the global markets have necessitated a change in the
structure of FLO-CERT so that it aligns with the emerging and changing business
realities around the world. In January FLO-CERT reorganised itself bringing in
more focus on marketing and sales.
In the newly re-structured FLO-CERT we have created an Operations
Department and Thomas Poole, who until recently was Director Certification,
has taken over as Director Operations. Clay Brown, Associate Director and
Head of Certification, has assumed overall responsibility of the Certification
Department.
A new Marketing and Sales Department has been set up with Pieter Louw as the
Associate Director responsible for marketing and sales. He will also lead the
Research and Development Unit.
Amy Celino Potter, Continent Manager Asia, has now been given the additional
responsibility of Africa. Marianella Cervi, Regional Manager Europe, has been
made Continent Manager for Europe. Earlier, both these continents were under
Clay Brown. Anna Kiemen will be the new Regional Manager for Europe.
We look forward to your continuing support to FLO-CERT.
New member of Supervisory Board

Dr. Christian Thorun has joined the Supervisory Board of FLO-CERT.
Dr Thorun is the founder and managing director of ConPolicy - an Institute for
Consumer Policy. Before the founding of the institute, he worked at the
Federation of German Consumer Organisations in Berlin. His responsibilities
included economic policy, competition, privacy and corporate social
responsibility (CSR). Furthermore, he was co-chair of the Information Society
Working Group of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) and spokesperson
of the international consumer organisations in the negotiations of an
international standard on social responsibility - ISO 26000.
Dr Thorun holds doctoral and master degrees in International Relations from
the University of Oxford. He has received a range of scholarships including the
Cecil Rhodes scholarship for his studies in Oxford and an undergraduate and
graduate scholarship from the German Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation.
He is frequently invited as an expert on consumer policy in political hearings
and is active in public debate; contributed his expertise in events organised by
the EU Commission, OECD, the German Parliament and universities. He also
teaches at the Quadriga Hochschule and the Quadriga Academy.
Dr Thorun has two daughters and lives in Bad Honnef near Bonn.
FLO-CERT certifies gold
Cotapata, small-scale mining cooperative in Bolivia, has become the first
organisation to receive a Fairtrade and Fairmined certificate. The organisation
was certified in December 2010.
Photo: ARM
In February 2011 another mining cooperative, Oro Verde (Green Gold) from
Consejo Comunitario in Condoto, Colombia, producing ecological gold, received
its certificate. It coincided with the launch of Fairtrade and Fairmined gold
jewellery in the UK market.

The first two mines that have been certified represent two distinct but typical
mining schemes: Cotapata in Bolivia is a small hard-rock mine in a mountainous
area close to La Paz, feeding 88 families, being formalized in a cooperative
since 1991. The second, Oro Verde consists of 112 families of miners, who
make their living through alluvial small-scale mining in the Chocó Region in
Colombia.
Both these organisation have been complying with environmental and social
standards for years.
The Fairtrade Certificate now improves chances for Southern producers to
better access the Northern markets, without going through intermediaries who
do not guarantee a fair deal.
Since the Fairtrade and Fairmined Standard for Gold had been published in
2010, mining organisations from Latin America can apply for Fairtrade and
Fairmined certification of gold and associated precious metal, which is silver
and platinum. The gold standard has been developed in close collaboration
between Fairtrade International (FLO e.V.) and the Alliance for Responsible
Mining (ARM).
Rings, bracelets and chains containing certified gold will be labeled with the
first dual label: Fairtrade and Fairmined.
Photo: Ronald Köpke

FLO-CERT was involved from the very inception of the idea to certify artisanal
gold. We supported the two organisations in setting the standards by
conducting pilots and field studies.
About 100 million people worldwide depend on artisanal and small scale mining
for their incomes and they contribute up to 10% of the global gold production.
There is a huge potential for Fairtrade and Fairmined to improve living and
working conditions for these miners and to recognise development and
formalization of a sector that has been neglected in many parts of the world.
If you are interested in reading more, please visit www.fairgold.org
Better lives, better beans, better bars
Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union, one of the biggest and the oldest Fairtrade
Certified farmers’ organisations of cocoa in Ghana, launched its child labour
programme on November 15 at a function organised in Kumasi. It also released
the first annual report of its programme on elimination of worst forms of child
labour on the farms of its members.
The programme was presided over by a representative of the Queen Mother of
Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana.
Speaking at the function, Ruediger Meyer, CEO of FLO-CERT, lauded the efforts
made by Kuapa Kokoo to prevent and eliminate child labour from its farms. He
said that Kuapa Kokoo has set an example for farmers’ organisations by
implementing an internal control system and launching a community based
campaign to eliminate child labour.
“There is child labour in agriculture production, in carpets and many other
sectors, but I have never seen any cooperative like Kuapa Kokoo taking it so
seriously. What you have done here is set an example for cooperatives all over
the world and I am sure many will follow,” he said.

“Better lives, better beans, better bars,” Ruediger said elaborating that if the
farmers’ lives are improved then the productivity and quality will also increase.
Ruediger also visited some farms of Kuapa Kokoo’s members in the Ashanti
region and held discussions with farmers.
FLO-CERT’s new web interface: Ecert 3 rd Party Portal
In January 2011, FLO-CERT GmbH successfully launched the first version of a
new web based stakeholder interface: the 3 rd Party Portal. This portal is
fashioned to enable easy access to audit and certification data which is stored
in FLO-CERT’s certification database Ecert.
Since its launch, FLO-CERT has started to roll-out the 3 rd Party Portal to its
stakeholders namely LIs and Fairtrade International. Other interested parties
and organisations are welcome to use this new tool as well. If you are
interested, please contact Frank Brinkschneider, Director Technical Services,
at f.brinkschneider@flo-cert.net .
The aim of the 3 rd Party Portal is to add more transparency to FLO-CERT’s audit
and certification process by sharing audit and certification relevant information
with its clients across the Fairtrade community. A great step forward is that
the data is always synchronized in real time with the productive certification
database Ecert. Therefore users can always rely on the most recent actual
data.
A 3 rd party can view data of certified organisations only after a “consent to
release” is signed by the organisation. Before getting access, 3 rd party users
will also have to sign a confidentiality agreement with FLO-CERT.
FLO-CERT will gladly accept feedback from its stakeholders to increase the
information flow, transparency on audit and certification processes, and
additional data required within Fairtrade.
Staff Corner

Dorra Zairi, Certification Analyst
I joined FLO-CERT some five months ago after finishing my masters in
development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
London. FLO-CERT is like a small melting pot with people from all over. I am
Tunisian and I very quickly felt comfortable in this multicultural and
multilingual environment where everyone speaks an average of two languages.
It has been great to work in such an international environment.
As a certification body, FLO-CERT has a close relationship with producers and
traders from all over the world. Being a certification analyst, I am in contact
with producers and traders from different countries namely Palestine, Egypt,
Tunisia and Morocco and I feel that my everyday work has a real impact on
their lives.
I particularly enjoy my work as it allows me to guide the producers and traders
throughout the certification process from the moment they apply to the
moment they get certified. Working with FLO-CERT allows me to actively
participate in building a credible Fairtrade market, thus contributing in
building a better future for producers and traders in developing countries.
And what I like the most about working here is that everyday when I come to
work I can feel that everyone at the office is motivated by the same idea, that
is – making the world a better place for producers across the globe .
Auditor Corner

Philipp Sebastian Seitz
The most enjoyable part of conducting a Fairtrade audit is the visit to the
farmers’ fields and interacting with them individually as well as in a group.
Most farmers that I have met come across to me as simple, sincere, honest and
humble. Their modesty and hospitality has certainly increased my respect
towards farmers. I admire their spirit and hard work.
I have never had a bad experience as an auditor. In fact farmers and the
managements of farmers’ cooperatives always welcome auditors. They make
me feel comfortable and are always prepared to answer my questions. In my
experience, famers have seen the benefits of Fairtrade and in every audit I
come across examples of how they have intelligently and judiciously decided on
using the Fairtrade Premium for the benefit of their community. Farmers
always think of the community in which they live as it is their social safety net.
It is also fascinating to get introduced to different cultures when I visit
different countries and also sometimes different regions within the same
country. Also, it is interesting to see how farmers in different parts of the
world find local solutions to their problems.