Steve Homer CR Manager

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Steve Homer CR Manager

• Retail specifications and small farm livelihood
  

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Flamingo Group CR Scope

• Both Social and Environmental
• Our own companies worldwide
• Our supply partners world wide 225 companies
  and over 1200 sites
• Governments, Trade Unions, Non Governmental
  Organisations, the media and anyone interested in
  the activities of Flamingo and their suppliers
  worldwide
• International certification bodies, private
  labels, trade associations and working groups.

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Contents

• Flamingo in 2 minutes
• The changing face of certification
• Smallholders in the supply chain
• The missing link
• Some suggestions going forward

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The Flamingo Group

• A UK registered company of 350M turnover that
  has been established in Kenya for 23 years
• Totally vertically integrated between Kenya and
  the UK from growing to airfreight to marketing to
  distribution.
• Trained workforce of over 7,000 people, of which
  88 are permanent employees.
• Investment in Kenya in excess of 100m over the
  last 20 years
• Over 2000 smallholders worldwide complimenting
  our own vegetable production

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Flamingo Logistics Kenya

• JK Airport Depot Nairobi
• 2.4 ha of land located in the specialised freight
  area immediately adjacent to the airport.
• Vegetable processing
• 4,500 m2 of fully temperature controlled high and
  low care vegetable processing facilities
• Vehicle workshops
• 500 lorries, staff buses, tractors
• Road, bridge and construction equipment
• Irrigation and farm machinery

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Or from here to here..
..In 72 Hours
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Contents

• Flamingo in 2 minutes
• Smallholders in the supply chain
• The changing face of certification
• The missing link
• Some suggestions going forward

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Flamingo Outgrowers Smallholders

• Outgrower program established for over 15 years
  in Kenya fully compliant with EU technical,
  traceability and social standards.
• Homegrown now has over 1000 Outgrowers in Kenya
  and last year paid them over 5M for produce
• Programs now replicated in Thailand and Guatemala
  bringing total smallholder numbers to around 2500
• Technical field managers provide free access to
  unique IPM solutions developed in-house through
  Dudutech, agricultural best practice and direct
  communication.

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Contents

• Flamingo in 2 minutes
• Smallholders in the supply chain
• The changing face of certification
• The missing link
• Some suggestions going forward

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Provenance
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Licence to trade ?
National Standards
International Standards
Private Standards

• Ministry of Labour ( as per ILO )
• Department of Health and Safety (DOHS)
• Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS)
• National Environmental Management Agency
• Horticultural Ethical Business Initiative (HEBI)
• Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya

• MRL RESIDUES 91/414/EEC
• MARKETING STANDARDS 1148/2001
• TRACEABILITY 178/2002
• HARMFUL ORGANISMS 29/2000
• NATIONAL CONTROL 882/2004 ( FOOD SAFETY )

• EUREPGAP
• BRC
• Fair Trade Organisation
• ETI smallholder
• Tesco Natures Choice
• Marks Spencer - Field to Fork
  

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Eurepgap-Light ?...

• Food safety is not set by Eurepgap and is a
  rising standard
• Eurepgap is a good tool to meet those needs and
  that of other legislative frameworks But it is
  only a tool
• Food safety needs are the same for ½ Ha or 2000
  Ha
• A standard cannot be reduced just to reduce the
  audit costs
• If the standard loses global acceptance or
  credibility then the standard dies.

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The External Debate

• WTO/TBT/SPS barriers to trade and development
• EU legislation and MRL harmonization
• SAI ( Nestle/Unilever etc..)
• GFSI the non-aligned retailers
• 50 of the world is Eurepgap 50 Other private
  standards
• Does Eurepgap or any other private standard have
  a role or responsibility to be the global
  harmonization force ?

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Dangers Ahead !...

• Small farmers get trampled under foot
• Food miles debate does not consider rural poverty
• Carbon debate not developed but very loud
• Water and natural resources high on the agenda
• Background noise of debate masks the compliance
  issue
• Food safety certification is not as media
  friendly

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Dangers Ahead !...

• European retailers and producers demand
  horizontal expansion of standards and one stop
  shops
• Retailer Social ?
• Retailer Environmental ?
• Retailer Carbon Scorecard ?
• Retailer MRL testing ?
• Who is the voice of the small farmer in this
  debate ?

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Contents

• Flamingo in 2 minutes
• Smallholders in the supply chain
• The changing face of certification
• The missing link
• Some suggestions going forward

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The Missing Link ? Not here..

• Supermarket Technical managers
• Industry trained
• Frequent visitors
• Aware of codes standards
• Wider Industry debate
• Stakeholder consultation starting
• Consumer awareness rising
• Media interest
• Known industry solutions to
• Private labels
• National codes of practice

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The Missing Link - Uncovered

• What does that look like commercially?
• Stability of business demand
• Removal of supplier uncertainty
• Longer term mutual plans
• Better communications
• More equal share of risk
• The missing parts are at the top of the chain

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What have we learned in 10 years ?

• There is an increasing number of small farmers
  being brought into the supply chain without any
  stability of demand for commodity based goods
• Changing the form of commodity goods into added
  value items like stir fry packs or mixed packs
  reduces the volatility of global competition
• Smallholders can compete on merit with
  plantations if they have the right products to
  grow.

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What have we learned in 10 years ?

• To study smallholder chain best practice in
  isolation is missing the bigger picture
• Any smallholder project must have a logistical
  and commercial route to market. CERTIFICATION
  IS NOT ENOUGH
• Too many smallholder projects we see do not have
  clear sight of a route to market when going for
  certification
• Developing smallholder horticulture without a
  sustainable stable marketplace or logistics
  partner is pointless

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Contents

• Flamingo in 2 minutes
• Smallholders in the supply chain
• The changing face of certification
• The missing link
• Some suggestions going forward

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Possible improvements.

• Supermarkets commit to map supply chains with
  smallholders using self declaration by main
  suppliers. Most supermarkets only map to first
  tier and only see the exporter
• Products from smallholders have written service
  level agreements detailing period of supply and
  minimum notice period. There are few written
  contracts with Supermarkets or exporters and none
  that connect all.
• All products that contain smallholders are marked
  on the buying systems and cannot be arbitrarily
  changed without one step up approval CSR
  teams never know until it is too late to
  implement corporate policy

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Possible improvements.

• Open discussion at all levels including
  smallholders about ownership of commercial risk
  and management of expectation
• This will allow players like Flamingo to invest
  in
• More training for smallholders
• Better infrastructure
• Possible micro-finance
• This will allow capacity building agencies to
• Develop and embed new sustainable supply chains
• Increase confidence of un-adopted growers
• Increase independence of Smallholders

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Responsible Purchasing Initiative

• 4 case study sectors
• Business case
• Indicators
• Public policy options
• www.responsible-purchasing.org

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In Summary

• The 2500 Flamingo smallholders and outgrowers
  compete in the Flamingo supply chain on merit
• The Flamingo smallholders and outgrowers have met
  and often exceeded all of the standards placed
  before them without the need to reduce standards
• Flamingo have fifteen years of stable proven
  activity that meets most of the needs of the
  players in the chain and provide an income for
  around 12000 smallholder dependents worldwide
• All of this is done without distorting the
  commercial or technical picture in favour of the
  smallholders

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How can we make this traditional model
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Into this
Genuine added value
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Thank you.