First certified Fairtrade shop opens in Taiwan

Oko green, established and run by Hsu Wen-yen, who has studied in Britain, is a cozy little coffee shop nestling in a quiet lane off Xuzhou Road, which offers coffee beans — both via the Internet or at his shop — along with freshly made coffee.

There is no price list for Hsu’s coffee. “You pay what you consider a reasonable price,” said Hsu, who spent more than a year obtaining an FLO license to operate an FLO fairtrade shop.

Hsu obtained his FLO license in December 2007, paving the way for the opening in April of his coffee shop, where he sells coffee beans from Africa, Latin America and other Third World countries at much lower prices than those sold at supermarkets or international food chains.

Oko green’s coffee beans are directly supplied by FLO International at prices that include no extra middle-man costs.

Hsu maintains a transparent cost-and spending chart that can be monitored directly by FLO International headquarters on a daily basis.

Under the FLO motto of Trade Not Aid, Hsu follows the FLO criteria of donating 1 percent of his business turnover each month to support FLO activities aimed at helping people in poor Third World countries, including building power plants, exploring new water sources, developing medical infrastructure and helping people to escape poverty.

Hsu himself donates NT$10 for each cup of coffee sold at his shop, an amount that will accrue so that he can donate to local charity organizations, “to help people from my own country, in efforts to save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions.”

Hsu became aware of FLO fairtrade operations several years ago, but knew that Taiwan people had been purchasing FLO-certified Third World products via Japan at “unreasonably high prices” due to the lack of any FLO presentation in Taiwan.

He wanted to have an FLO-certified shop in Taiwan and started to contact the FLO International head office in 2006, only to find that the road before him was “long and winding.”

After many twists and turns, he obtained an FLO business license Dec. 7, 2007, issued by the FLO head office after it found that Hsu is a member of Taiwan’s Green Party with a strong commitment to environmental protection and wildlife conservation efforts, according to Hsu.

Fairtrade certification is a product certification system designed to allow people to identify products that meet agreed environmental, labor and development standards. Overseen by a standard-setting body, FLO International, and a certification body, FLO-CERT, the system involves independent auditing of producers to ensure the agreed standards are met. Companies offering products that meet the Fairtrade standards may apply for licenses to use the Fairtrade Certification Mark for those products.

The FLO International Fairtrade certification system covers a growing range of products, including bananas, honey, oranges, cocoa, coffee, cotton, oil seeds, quinoa, rice, spices, sugar, tea and wine, as well as handicraft products.

As of December 2007, 632 producer organizations in 58 developing countries were FLO-CERT Fairtrade-certified.

The fairtrade movement is now active in 14 countries and there are 287 fairtrade towns in Europe alone. Japan was the first Asian country in which FLO fairtrade activities have become popular.

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