Mission and Purpose

The Ethical Trading Company (Etico) is an association of small farmers, companies, consumers and charities aimed at producing high-quality products while improving the quality of life of producer communities through fair trading practices, joint analysis of costs, sharing of information, and trusting relationships.

Origins and Development

Organizational Structure, Membership, and Funding

Ético is made up of agricultural cooperatives, charities, and consumer companies.

Specializations, Methods and Tools

Cooperatives and charities are invited to buy shares of Ético, giving farmers an opportunity to own a portion of the supply chain. Profits from the business operations are reinvested in smallholder farmers through the charities and cooperatives. These investments assist farmers in improving quality of produce, infrastructure, and social and ecological sustainability. Some examples include construction of cupping laboratories for coffee growers, loans to enable land ownership, facilitation of honey production to avoid deforestation and reduce pesticide use, and cattle purchases to diversify livelihood strategies.

Major Projects and Events

Alongside its trading activities, Ético also collaborates with its cooperatives other partners on social, environmental and ethical initiatives to further empower the communities it works with. One such initiative is the Recognition of the Unpaid Work of Women in agricultural production and supply chains. As part of this initiative, Ético calculated the cost of all the unpaid labor carried out by women and included this cost in the amount of money paid to its agricultural cooperatives. This money was then used to drive further empowerment by the creation of additional financial and educational resources for women [1].

Analysis and Lessons Learned

Publications

See Also

References

[1] RWLindsay. (2013). Recognition of the Unpaid Work of Women. Social Business Network. Available at: https://thesocialbusinessnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/recognition-of-the-unpaid-work-of-women/ (Accessed 30 July 2020)

External Links

https://www.etico.net/AboutUs.php#Principles

Notes

The first submission of this Participedia entry was adapted from an entry by the Institute of Development Studies as part of their research project 'Linking Participation and Economic Advancement’ licensed and reproduced under Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0): https://www.eldis.org/keyissues/mapping-participation-economic-advancement