FAQs about PBU's role and services

Will the PBU arrange trips for journalists/product managers?

The PBU does not organise trips to producers for students, researchers or journalists. Producers are often overwhelmed by such requests. However, if producers themselves wish to welcome visitors, we encourage them to make this known on their producer profiles.

Who is responsible for finding new products?

Introducing a new product into the Fairtrade system is slow and costly. That is because we try to get it right and this takes a great deal of research. If you know of a product that would sell well in your market, we would encourage you always to talk to your National Initiative. Be realistic, however. A product needs to sell in considerable volume before a producer begins to benefit from these sales.

What about Producer Support? Who is doing that now?

Producer support falls under two key categories; ongoing assistance and specific project work. The former belongs to the work of the Liaison Officer, the latter needs external funding and can be prompted by a request from the LO or the producer group itself. In some parts of the world projects are being run by Liaison Officers. This is true in El Salvador where the work of the Liaison Officer is combined with major project work being funded by Irish Aid and Hivos. Short term projects tend to be undertaken by local NGOs.

Who pays for the Liaison Officers?

The current liaison officers are in place thanks to the contributions of NOVIB, Irish Aid, DED, GTZ, EED, Misereor, Comic Relief, DFID, the Four Acre Trust, ICCO, Christian Aid, HIVOS and SNV. All the Liaison Officer work is funded on short term contracts and current funding is available for between 1 and 2 years. The long term strategy for the PBU is a higher degree of sustainability for this structure.

What about special projects for producers?

In General, the PBU does not get involved in managing or organising projects for individual producers. There are many organisations in the field who can do this. Managing a project well is a particular skill and it often requires people on the ground. If you have money and wish to forward it to ongoing projects we may be able to advise who is doing what and if they need more money to complete their work. There is a major exception to this; in Central America there is a long term and highly successful project ongoing. Here there is specific funding to develop relationships with national NGOs to focus on capacity building and training. This project may well become the template for future Liaison Officer work if further funding is made available.

Is the PBU involved in setting prices?

  Pricing is now the responsibility of Standards Unit (SU). The PBU will gladly act as a recipient of pricing information from individual producers and traders and will collate such information on behalf of the SU. The PBU may also be asked to coordinate certain activities on behalf of the SU, including writing guidance sheets, working with liaison officers, suggesting suitable producer contacts. The PBU, however, will not be involved in the actual pricing proposals put to the Standards Committee.

I need information for a research project. Can you help me?

  The PBU receives innumerable requests for help from students, researchers and journalists. We would love to help everyone, but we do not have the resources to do so. We do have a few helpful fact sheets concerning various products, but we do not supply information about producers, sales, operations etc. Many producers do not want details of their activities to be made public for reasons of commercial confidentiality. The producer profiles will tell you a little about each producer and whether they wish to be contacted directly or not.

Some producers actively welcome visitors and have formed small business offering eco-tourist holidays.