K-food stores start selling Fairtrade roses
K-food stores are the first retailers in Finland to start selling Fairtrade roses. The launch date is 1 September, which also marks the beginning of the Pirkka festival. The roses are the fifth Fairtrade product in the K-food stores' Pirkka range.
Pirkka Fairtrade roses are sold in K-food stores in bunches of ten, at €4.90 each. Other Pirkka Fairtrade products are coffee, tea, pineapple, and mango-orange juice.
”Roses are a new and interesting Fairtrade product in Finland. An increasing number of Finns are concerned with the conditions in which the products they buy are grown or produced, and K-food stores are now offering Finnish consumers a completely new way to influence,” says Tuulia Syvänen, Executive Director of the Finnish Association for Fairtrade Labelling.
The first Fairtrade roses for Finland are grown at four different flower farms in Kenya. The farms accepted to the international Fairtrade system pay special attention to the employees' salaries, safety at work and freedom of association. In addition, the Fairtrade premium, the 8 percent extra added to the export price of the flowers, is used to improve housing and living conditions of the employees and their families. The farms growing roses for imports to Finland have used these Fairtrade premiums for example to buy schoolbooks and water tanks for local communities (e.g. the Maasai community). The Fairtrade premium has also been used to refurbish the local school, to build more classrooms and to purchase a generator to guarantee electricity supply in the staff housing area at night-time.
”By buying Fairtrade roses Finnish consumers can really make changes in the lives of the people growing them,” reminds Tuulia Syvänen.
Production of roses in developing countries involves many drawbacks
Flowers are one of Kenya's fastest growing production sectors. They are the country's second most important agricultural import product after tea, and after tourism and tea the country's third most important source of foreign currency. Floriculture employs an estimated 40,000–50,000 people. The Fairtrade rose scheme tries to influence on the general problems of the country's floriculture, such as low salaries, long working hours and the use of dangerous chemicals and child labour. Flower farm employees are also guaranteed the right to join trade unions or to affect their working conditions by participating in the joint on-farm working groups of farm owners and employees.
Kesko estimates that approximately four million Fairtrade roses will be sold annually, which number would generate about €50,000 in Fairtrade premiums to the employees. Fairtrade roses are sold in all K-food stores.
”We find it important to be able to offer a wide selection of Fairtrade products in our stores. Fairtrade roses are a fine addition to the Pirkka range. We are also pleased to be the first trading group in Finland to sell Fairtrade roses,” says Tarja Jukkara, Purchasing Director at Kesko Food.
A rose tree installation consisting of some 5,000 Fairtrade roses is built at the Kamppi square ('Narinkka marketplace') in Helsinki on Friday, 1 September. During the afternoon, a total of 10,000 Fairtrade roses are handed to passers-by at the square as Kesko's donation to the 'Good Grows in Helsinki' project.
Further information:
Kesko Food Ltd, Purchasing Director Tarja Jukkara, tel. +358 50 387 5990.
Association for Fairtrade Labelling, Executive Director Tuulia Syvänen, tel. +358 44 287 5400 and Head of Information Heidi Korva, tel. +358 44 287 5401.
'Good Grows in Helsinki' project, City of Helsinki, Project Manager Elina Nummi, tel. +358 9 166 2364, www.hel2.fi/hkr/hyvakasvaa/
Press service: www.vision.fi/ruokakesko tai www.reilukauppa.fi > Lehdistö > Kuvapankki.
