Sustainable Fair Trade Management System completed

We have finally completed the SFTMS - the first pilot fair trade organisation in the world to pass through the process and be audited. It has been a lot of work and a steep learning curve over the past 9 months for myself, Mark, my staff and all of our producer groups in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. This month an auditor visited some of our Ecuadorian producer groups and we also received an auditor at our Ashbourne offices. We have completed our first Fair Trade report which gives details of our fair trade and environmental work last year and commitments undertaken during the current year as a result of our assessments of producer groups carried out last October.

All of our producer groups have kept to their action plans which are bringing about social, health and safety and capacity building improvements. For example, our embroidery group have all had eye tests and I will be buying glasses for those who need them. It seems that a lot of the embroiderers require an eye operation rather than glasses and so this will be a large additional expense. However, the embroiderers themselves certainly do not have the finances for an operation and so this will have to be paid for by Pachacuti.

We have seen so many improvements since starting work on the SFTMS in terms of our relationship with our producers, particularly with regard to implementing quality control checks, improving processes and procedures and finding ways to improve transatlantic communication. It has really brought about long-lasting benefits to the way we operate and we are excited to be the first Fair Trade organisation in the world to have completed the pilot. We look forward to the eventual launch of the label by the WFTO as we hope that this certification will lead to increased sales from mainstream buyers and bring lasting benefit to our producer groups.