Exchanging experiences and joining forces: strengthening the Fair Trade ecosystem

Beirut, Thursday, December 13 2018
Smallville Hotel, Badaro
Following the launching of the International Fair Trade Charter in September 2018, Fair Trade Lebanon organized a workshop on Thursday, December 13 at the Smallville Hotel gathering agrofood value chain actors and experts, small producers, sales representatives and marketing professionals.
This workshop is the first in a range of many upcoming sessions that will aim at strengthening the role of the Lebanese Association for Fair Trade Producers (LAFTP) in supporting its members through logistics, administrative means and market access.

The main topics that were raised by the participants evolved around marketing strategies, the legal status of the cooperatives and the value chain and cluster approach.
Experts in the different fields such as Mrs. Jamale Osta from the Directorate of Cooperatives in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Rodrigue el Balaa, M. Nassim Njeim and other professionals from Expertise France, Fair Trade Lebanon and Artisans du Monde Federation’s teams facilitated the workshop and have enriched the session with their expertise and knowledge.
It was finally a great opportunity for the agrofood producers, coming from different villages in Lebanon, to share their experiences and exchange practices.
This workshop will be followed by peer visits that will be organized in several Lebanese regions in order to share the information with more local producers and increase the Fair Trade network in Lebanon.

About Fair Trade Lebanon:
Fair Trade Lebanon currently offers a viable economic model to farmers in rural regions of Lebanon. Providing around 40 cooperatives with adequate equipment, training sessions on hygiene, quality control and best practices according to Fair Trade regulations and principles. Lebanese farmers are now exporting more than 120 high quality Lebanese products through Fair Trade Lebanon’s network to Europe, UK, Australia, the Gulf countries and the United States. It is a great way of helping Lebanese men and women to keep their ancestral skills of farming Lebanese land and producing authentic Lebanese food staying alive and profitable.
For more information, please contact M. Alexandre Salha on 05 952153 or 03 540 091; [email protected] ; www.fairtradelebanon.org .