The British government has announced a £2 million ($4.1 million) fund to boost the export of sustainably produced produce from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
The UK government’s Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (Frich) is aimed at trying to encourage British firms to buy more sustainably produced produce from Africa.
According to Gareth Thomas, the UK Minister for Trade and International Development, the fund “will bring together retailers and African farmers to increase the market for sustainably produced food. By purchasing Fairtrade labelled, organic and other certified products from developing countries, people are already making a real difference to poor farmers’ lives, but we want to go further as I don’t think we can rely on labels alone,” the minister said.
“We need to trade more with the poorest countries in Africa and we want more of this trade to be fair and ethical. This is why we have announced Frich, which is designed to help African farmers come up with innovative business ideas to compete in our globalised world.
The move comes barely six weeks after Mr Thomas said that the Soil Association decision to certify organic produce from Africa only if they meet its vigorous ethical trading standards, could harm poor farmers.
We are disappointed with their [the Soil Association] proposal to withdraw [organic] certification from air-freighted products that are not additionally certified to either the Soil Association’s own ethical standard or the Fairtrade label,” he said. “We know that certifying new products can take six months to several years and (sometimes) costs hundreds of thousands of Euros,” he added.
Nigel Jenney, the chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium also warned that, “If organic imports become a pariah commodity, negative perceptions among consumers could have a far greater impact: The UK imports £200 million ($408 million) of fresh fruit and vegetables from sub Saharan Africa annually, and this trade could be damaged.
“The 135,000 people in Kenya directly employed in the fresh fruit and vegetable export industry [91 per cent of imports go to the UK] would be severely disadvantaged, as would be the one million people supported indirectly by the industry.”
