Today, December 12th, is set aside as International Poinsettia Day, an excellent opportunity to shine a spotlight on these blooms and the people that help produce them.
With their star-shaped leaves these flowers are a beloved choice for the holiday season. "About 100 million poinsettias are sold on the European market each year for these festive times, and about half of these originate from Wagagai," comments Olav Boenders, CEO of Wagagai, a flower propagation company of cuttings based in the South of Uganda. According to Boenders, annually, they sell approximately 50 million Selecta Klemm poinsettia cuttings to European markets.
Since 2017, Wagagai is Fairtrade-certified and launched the Fairtrade Cents Bonus Fund to support living wages at poinsettia farms. In this article, Boenders talks more about this initiative and his ongoing search for industry partners.
Before these Christmas blooms arrive at the end-consumer, they are grown and nurtured by people at farms as many other plants that originate from cuttings. Boenders seeks to ensure that these poinsettia farm workers earn enough to meet the costs of essential needs. He highlights that only 0,5 cents per cutting could make a significant difference in providing living wages to farm workers.
"As a Pilot to raise wages, we introduced the Fairtrade Cents Bonus Fund. The importer pays a fixed Fairtrade Cents Bonus of 4,5 euro cents per cutting, on top of the regular Fairtrade Premium (0,5 cents for the poinsettias from Uganda). The bonus of 4,5 cents goes into a Fairtrade Cents Bonus Fund. The revenue is paid out to the workers directly and raises their income. The price increase is so small that consumers are unlikely to notice it.
Currently, we sell about only 1,6 million Fairtrade Poinsetta cuttings out of the total 55 million Poinsettias we sell. We either would like to increase our Fairtrade sold cuttings or find a way to add a small extra premium to the other cuttings itself."
He is convinced that collective efforts to promote living wages will have a greater impact. We are eager to collaborate with industry partners to jointly move towards living wages in the cuttings sector.
Ideally, competition in our industry shouldn't affect living wages. We look forward to sharing creative insights to achieve this goal." He expects that the issue of living wages will play a more prominent role in the flower industry in the future. Corporate sustainability due diligence, for instance, is becoming increasingly important, and living wages are definitely part of it."
For now, Boenders and Wagagai will continue to advocate for living wages and their Fairtrade Cents Bonus fund, hoping to inspire others to join so that Christmas Stars can truly represent the spirit of the Christmas seasons.
For more information:
Wagagai
www.wagagai.com
