University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

France: Producers and Competition
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A stark division can be seen in the discourse of ADM (militants) vs Carrefour
(traditional profit-seeker) regarding their references to producers and competition. In
articles specific to Carrefour, references to producers were used only 5 times, against
a total of 23 times by ADM. Moreover, in articles referring to Carrefour, not only is
the word is mentioned without being linked at any time with generating profit and
benefits to the producers, but is also used in a context irrelevant and unrelated to
Carrefour. Sentences such as the following best illustrate our point: “(…) Elle a
félicité le groupe Carrefour de « faire preuve de responsabilité sociale » en
s'engageant sur ce secteur qui assure aux petits producteurs des pays en voie de
développement des prix de vente permettant leur survie” (“She congratulated
Carrefour for “being socially responsible” by engaging itself in a sector that ensures
small producers of developing countries prices allowing them to survive”). What we
first need to notice in this sentence is that ‘She’ here refers to Christine Lagarde, the
French minister for International Trade and the allusion on producers is not directly
linked to Carrefour. Second, the use of the word ‘socially responsible’ refers to
Corporate Social Responsibility, rather than Fairtrade specifically. Third, the word
‘survive’ contains in itself quite a negative connotation, while the discourse on
Fairtrade is usually very positive using words such as ‘empowering producers’,
‘development’, ‘fair price’, ‘decent lives’.
In contrast, there are multiple references to producers in our ADM sample. We shall
first of all consider some examples: Monique Le Minter, president of an ADM’s
product branch states that: “Grâce aucommerce équitable, les producteurs disposent
de salaires justes et durables. Et les villages peuvent investir dans des projets de
développement. Comme ce village d'Intouchables, en Inde, qui peut maintenant
envoyer ses filles à l'école !” (“Thanks to Fairtrade, producers have fair and
sustainable salaries. And the villages can invest in projects of development. Like this
village of Untouchables in India, where they can now send their daughters to
school”). In this first example, the discourse used is typical of Fairtrade: the words
‘fair’, ‘sustainable’ ‘development’ directly refer to the core goals of the Fairtrade
movement. The words used are not only positive but they are used in an optimistic,
constructive and encouraging way, leading to the conclusion that Fairtrade is
bringing about positive changes in the lives of producers.
The other element is that producers are recast as active partners rather than passive
recipients. An employee of ADM (2005) was reported as saying: “Notre objectif,
c'est bien de permettre à ces producteurs, artisans ou paysans des pays du sud, qui
sont défavorisés de vivre le plus dignement possible et aussi d'être acteurs de leur
développement” (“Our objective is to enable these producers, framers or growers of
Southern countries to live the most decently possible and also to be the agent of their
own development”). Here the use of the term ‘agent’ is most emblematic of a
Fairtrade discourse, evoking the connotation of producers’ empowerment and direct
engagement.
To summarise, vocabulary used throughout ADM’s references to producer is
unequivocally representative of the Fairtrade discourse. Words such as ‘better living
conditions’, ‘decent’ ‘decently’ and ‘dignity’ are used throughout the references and