The nation's first fair trade shop licensed by the Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO) International, headquartered in Germany, opened in Taipei recently, enabling consumers to buy products made in developing countries while helping them benefit through trade.
Oko Green, established and run by Hsu Wen-yen (徐文彥), is a cozy little coffee shop nestled in a quiet lane off of Xuzhou Road, and offers coffee beans — both via the Internet or at his shop — along with freshly made coffee.
There is no price list for Hsu’s coffee.
PHOTO: CNA
“You pay what you consider a reasonable price, “ said Hsu, who spent more than a year obtaining an FLO license to operate an FLO fairtrade shop.
Hsu obtained his FLO license in December and four months later opened his shop, where he sells beans from Africa, Latin America and other developing countries at much lower prices than those sold at supermarkets or international food chains.
Oko Green’s coffee beans are directly supplied by FLO International at prices that include no middle-man costs.
Hsu maintains a transparent cost-and-spending chart that can be monitored directly by FLO International headquarters on a daily basis.
Under the FLO motto of Trade Not Aid, Hsu follows FLO criteria by donating 1 percent of his business turnover each month to support FLO activities aimed at helping people in poor developing countries, including building power plants, exploring new water sources, developing medical infrastructure and helping people to escape poverty.
Hsu himself donates NT$10 for each cup of coffee sold at his shop to local charity organizations “to help people from my own country to save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions.”
Hsu became aware of fair trade operations several years ago, but knew that Taiwanese had been purchasing FLO-certified products from Japan at “unreasonably high prices” because of a lack of any FLO representation here.
He wanted to establish an FLO-certified shop in Taiwan and started to contact the head office in 2006, only to find that the road before him was “long and winding.”
After a lot of difficulty, he received a FLO business license on Dec. 7 last year, issued by the head office after it found that Hsu was a member of Taiwan’s Green Party with a strong commitment to environmental protection and wildlife conservation efforts, Hsu said.
Fair trade certification is a product certification system designed to allow people to identify products that meet agreed environmental, labor and development standards.
With oversight by a standard-setting body, FLO International, and a certification body, FLO-CERT, the system involves independent auditing of producers to ensure the agreed standards are met. Companies offering products that meet the fair trade standards may apply for licenses to use the fairtrade certification mark for those products.
The FLO international fair trade certification system covers a growing range of products, including bananas, honey, oranges, cocoa, coffee, cotton, oil seeds, quinoa, rice, spices, sugar, tea and wine, as well as handicraft products.
As of last December, 632 producer organizations in 58 developing countries were FLO-CERT fair-trade-certified.
The fair trade movement is now active in 14 countries and there are 287 fair trade towns in Europe alone. Japan was the first Asian country where FLO fair trade activities have become popular.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the