Fair & Social is Possible

Plantation employees filling a survey as part of a social impact assessment.

In terms of income and perspectives for new generations, the agricultural sector is an unequal sector of the economy. While palm oil development has fueled economic growth and reduced poverty in rural areas, its benefits are distributed unequally across and within palm growing countries.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development published and interesting article about the role of agricultural trade in reducing inequality and how agricultural trade can mitigate inequalities: “One factor to ensure broad-based benefits from agricultural trade is guaranteeing equal access and economic opportunities for women, youth, small farmers, and other vulnerable groups. To reduce the potentially negative effects of exposure to greater competition from food imports, smallholder farmers need access to finance, inputs, knowledge, markets, and viable opportunities for diversifying sources of income, including off the farm.”

To improve local conditions, companies on the ground in rural areas can play an important role in providing access to services as well as linking farmers to international supply chains. Here’s how Palm Done Right contributes.

Meeting Our Promise
We consider our Fair and Social Promise as a foundational part of our Palm Done Right Model. We are meeting our promise through our operational model, our adherence to certification standards, and through the social projects we have developed for and with our farming communities.

What It Means
But what does fair & social actually mean? To us it means every person in our supply chain benefits from our approach. Since our inception in 2009 we have been actively executing our Palm Done Right vision. We have chosen to work with independent farmers in Ecuador, linking farmers to manufacturers, brands, retailers and consumers in the markets we supply. Engaging customers to reward organic, sustainable, and ethical practices has been key in our vision as well.

Diversity
Linking smallholders to markets brings opportunities and economic progress to the rural areas. Yet we also believe that we harvest better solutions when we bring a variety of perspectives to the challenges we face. That is also a benefits of working with a diverse farmer network. To date almost half of our…