ABOUT US

Young and idealistic Enny Wolak wants to help those less fortunate than herself. She raises money to feed malnourished children on Sicily. Together with Paul Meijs (on the right), Wolak sets up an organization for underdeveloped areas, SOS: Komitee Steun Onderontwikkelde Streken (SOS: Committee Support Underdeveloped Regions).

Paul Meijs is a talented organizer as well as a visionary with unconventional views. His motto: ‘It is better to trade fairly than to gift money’. He audaciously decides to put this vision into practice by purchasing 50 tons of what he deemed ‘fair’ coffee without having a buyer lined up. It proves to be the starting point of a global movement.

The Dutch Max Havelaar Foundation launches the first ever Fairtrade certification! The certification is a visual guarantee for consumers, assuring them that farmers and producers receive a fair price for their product or labour. Most of the items in our range still carry the Fairtrade mark today.

The Fairtrade certification was initially set up for the coffee industry, but why stop there? In 1994, we open shops in the Netherlands to sell Fairtrade-certified tea, honey, chocolate, clothing and even sustainable footballs. We decide to call our organization Fair Trade; a brand-new concept at the time.

We want as many consumers as possible buying Fairtrade products and so, we decide to make our products available at major retailers in the Netherlands. We rename the brand Fairtrade Original and launch our very own product range. From 2006 onward, Dutch supermarket chains Albert Heijn and Super de Boer stock Fairtrade Original products. Since then, our initial range of 15 products has increased dramatically and is available at all large supermarket chains in the Netherlands.

The fact that more and more people choose Fairtrade Original and appreciate the quality of the products is evident from the sales figures. We sell more than 1,600,000 cans of Coconut Milk 400 ML in 2016. A record!

Our Asian product line has been around for five years. A success of our people here and our people there! Because it is the recipes of the farmers who inspire us. The Thai farmers visit the Netherlands and we organize the very first Fairtrade Original food fair. We are also going international: in November we will start selling part of our range in the German supermarket Rewe Rahmati in Cologne.

Our profit is a better life for the people we work with. So our people there are increasingly packaging and preparing the products locally. You can taste their love and attention in quality. To demonstrate this, we are launching a new corporate identity and packaging with a message: For people. Not for profit.

In 2019 we will further improve our positioning and we will change our pay off to ‘Where flavour begins’. Flavour begins at the origin. Where the seed goes into the ground. Where tropical rain showers flood the rice fields. Where the sun ripens the pineapples. Since 1959, Fairtrade Original comes where taste starts. All ingredients are prepared and packaged as directly as possible, so that the original taste is preserved in your kitchen. That makes Fairtrade Original.

To increase sales and amplify our mission, we are scaling up our international efforts in 2020. Our German team focuses on expansion into Switzerland and Austria and in the second quarter of 2020 the first Fairtrade Original products will be available in Carrefour and E-Leclerc hypermarkets in France.