“It’s … what we would call a “Value added at source” company, which is actually 1 step more advanced than Fairtrade, because of course with Fairtrade what usually happens is that the farmer is paid a good price and social premium for the commodity eg cocoa and then it gets shipped to another country for processing and packaging, into eg chocolate, who then also takes a slice of the profit. But what Giovanni has created means that the processing and packaging and therefore all the profits stay within Colombia, and employ more local people. So that’s what a lot of us Fairtrade enthusiasts deem to be the Gold standard, and call Value added at source. .. and brilliant that it also comes under the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) logo too.”
– Gina Cox, Fair Trade Gift Box, who with her local team organised the Leigh-on-Sea event of the Fruition Tour.