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The real story from Kenya….. high quality roses ensures social & financial sustainability.

In our new concept ROOTS® we sell flowers to florists in Europe. I’ve done research on fair trade and will give you my opinion;

1. You have the company with the name Fairtrade Co, they are involved with charities and funds to help people. This has nothing to do with fair trade.

2. Fair trade is fair when everybody in the chain get paid for his work. To know exactly how we can prove transparency of our flowers I had a meeting with Jane of Kenya Flower Council. KFC is a private company and owned by the growers. Since 2008 they became professional through accreditation by Sanas. Sanas audit KFC and checks if they follow the national rules.

KFC checks on environment, water regulations, wages, social and financial sustainability, health facilities, local rules, contribution of social funds.
In Kenya 80 procent of the growers is member of Kenya Flower Council. When you are member they audit you once or twice a year.
The KFC certification starts with KS 1758 and stands for Kenya national standards for good Agricultural practice.
KFC silver certification is fair trade together with Global GAP, KS1758, Tesco – TN10

My conclusion: Kenyan flowers are fair trade when the grower is a KFC member with at least KS1758 certification.

It is also possible to become a KFC gold member. This is up to the grower himself when he wants to pay for his employees kids funds and other extra’s. It is not right to make people dependent by ‘giving’ them everything. You have to learn the people to think for themselves and take responsibility for their own lives and for their families.

You can read more about KFC on their website : www.kenyaflowercoucil.org

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