Trade and Environment Programme Newsletter-May 2015

Trade and Environment Programme

© Tomás Munita

© Tomás Munita

© Tomás Munita

© Tomás Munita

Trade and Environment Programme News- May 2015

Economic development is linked to sustainability as never before. Climate change threatens to

reverse decades of achievements in poverty reduction in vulnerable countries. Trade has a role

to play in meeting this challenge, creating economic opportunity through accessing green

economy markets and strengthening resilience to climate change.

The International Trade Centre’s (ITC) Trade and Environment Programme (TEP) aims to

strengthen the competiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing

countries exporting agri-food and natural products. The programme provides capacity building

and trade intelligence to exporters and producers, with a view to secure market access,

improve climate resilience and the sustainability of their sourcing. This results in higher

incomes for exporting MSMEs and the rural poor. TEP also works closely with ITC project

managers to mainstream sustainability approaches into ITC programming and policies.

In this quarterly update of TEP’s activities from the field we look at climate resilience in Kenya’s

coffee sector, how certified native cacao and quinoa from Peru are being promoted for exports,

the sustainable sourcing of biodiversity products (raffia and crocodile skin) for the luxury

fashion sector, and announcing call for papers for a forthcoming ITC-Durrell Institute

conference on trade and biodiversity.

ITC is grateful to the Governments of Denmark, Germany and Norway for funding the TEP and

to its cooperation partners including CITES, IUCN, the fashion group Kering and the Peruvian

trade promotion agency Promperú for our ongoing collaboration: partnerships are key to ITC’s

strategy for delivering both impact and sustainability.

Alexander Kasterine

Head, ITC Trade and Environment Programme

Boosting Peruvian exports of fine and

aromatic cocoa

ITC and Promperú are helping Peruvian cooperatives and SMEs exporting fine and aromatic cocoa improve their

sustainable sourcing practices, competitiveness and market access.

Global consumption of cocoa is steadily

increasing, especially for premium dark chocolate

with a high cocoa share. In the past decade

consumers have refined their cocoa taste.

As traceability and transparency demands are

growing, the ’bean-to-bar’ concept is increasingly

gaining a foothold. The simple enjoyment of

chocolate is no longer enough. Instead people

are looking for different cocoa tastes and origins,

as well as ethical and sustainable sourcing

practices. And there are increasing at the center

of marketing and commercialization strategies,

too.

The global increase in the demand for cocoa is

currently coupled with a supply deficit, which is

the combined result of drought and a fungal

disease called ‘frosty pod’, that has had a severe

effect in West Africa, which accounts for 70% of

the world’s cocoa supply.

The variety of different soils and climatic

conditions has seen the developed of a range of

cocoa varieties with unique tastes, including

criollo and forstero, which are also known as ‘fine

and aromatic’.

While the International Cocoa Organization

(ICCO) has ratified 17 countries worldwide as

producers of fine and aromatic cocoa, in Peru

90% of the cocoa exported falls into this

category. For Peruvian cocoa producers and

exporters, this opens a competitive advantage

over other cocoa producing countries

Increased cocoa demand

As a response to the global increase in cocoa

demand, especially in fine and aromatic varieties,

ITC’s Trade and Environment Programme (TEP)

will in 2015 be expanding its project to promote

biodiversity-based products to also cover this

sector. The expansion of the project will be

implemented in partnership with Promperú, the

Peruvian export promotion agency, as well as

with the Peruvian Association of Cocoa Farmers,

APPCACAO, and Proambiente of the German

Agency for International Cooperation.

Around 10 beneficiaries, including cooperatives

and SMEs will initially be selected and capacity

building will be offered on the producer and the

SME level. Support will be provided to

smallholders organized in cooperatives to

© Tomás Munita © Tomás Munita

improve the post-harvest treatment of cocoa and

cocoa tasting methods.

On the SME level, which also includes

cooperatives, customized advice targeted at the

individual needs of each SME will be provided.

This will focus on sustainable packaging, carbon

footprinting, certifications, as well as marketing

and branding. Furthermore, TEP will promote

market linkages to international buyers by

supporting national events such as the Salon Du

Chocolat in Lima.

200 coffee farmers to be trained on climate

adaptation in Kenya’s Nyeri region

ITC helps Kenyan smallholders adapt coffee production to climate change.

In March 2015, ITC’s Trade and Environment

Programme (TEP) launched new activities aimed

at training farmers in better agricultural practices

in the coffee sector in Kenya. The aim is to

increase resilience to climate change and help

farmers become more productive.

After a successful track record in implementing

climate change adaptation workshops in the tea

sector across the country, TEP’s training

curricula will be replicated to reach more than

200 smallholder coffee farmers in the Nyeri

region in central Kenya. Because of its soil

quality, the region is home to some of the

country’s best coffee.

Coffee is one of Kenya’s most important non-

petroleum related export products, with more

than 700,000 smallholders. Because of its

important role in smallholders’ revenues, coffee is

included as a priority sector in Kenya’s

Agricultural Sector Development Strategy

(ASDS) 2010-2020 and in Kenya Vision 2030.

The government-developed Kenya Vision 2030,

highlights the need and importance of increasing

productivity in the coffee sector. With a strong

focus on smallholders, the strategy suggests new

ways of improving efficiency at the farm level and

to add value to Kenya Coffee prior to marketing.

Low coffee yields

With an average production of 280 kg/ha, Kenya

has very low coffee yields. Low productivity is in

part caused by warming trends, which cause the

spread of the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus

hampei) in previously colder areas where its

presence and damages have been limited to

date. Erratic rainfall is also increasing the stress

on coffee production, as well as on the rest of the

agriculture sector of the whole country, which is

70% rain-fed.

Women carry out more than two-thirds of the

work in coffee farming in Kenya. Whereas ITC

workshops are mostly focused on technical

issues, they will bring women and men farmers

together and include social trainers who cover

topics such as child nutrition, domestic violence,

gender roles and empowerment in the

household. Through these trainings ITC also

aims at empowering women and their

associations in the coffee sector, building on the

work already conducted in East Africa together

© flickr/Rogiro

with the International Women’s Coffee Alliance

(IWCA).

The trainings are also designed to generate

knowledge spill-overs, emphasizing the role of

lead farmers and women supervisors to bring the

knowledge and skills they have acquired back to

their families and communities to educate their

peers.

Five Peruvian SMEs set to obtain gluten-

free certification in 2015

ITC and Promperú support Peruvian quinoa exporters in obtaining gluten-free certification to enter the quickly

growing gluten-free market

Quinoa is a naturally gluten-free product. As such

it meets the growing demand of, among others,

celiac patients and patients suffering from

irritable bowel disease and non-celiac gluten

sensitivity.

However, as the production areas of quinoa are

expanding, there is also an increased

contamination risk. For example, crops could

become contaminated with gluten during

production, transport, milling and packaging

processes. Hence, to market quinoa as gluten-

free, independent certifiers have to be hired to

assess the gluten-free nature of process and

certify the crops as gluten-free.

In January 2015, the ITC Trade and Environment

Programme (TEP) in partnership with the

Peruvian export promotion agency, Promperú,

initiated a gluten-free certification programme to

support five leading Peruvian SMEs exporting

quinoa. This programme is part of a joint ITC and

Promperú project to promote exports of

biodiversity-based products from Peru.

Market awareness

As a first step ITC and Promperú jointly offered a

workshop in collaboration with the certifier NSF

International to inform the beneficiaries of the

programme about the certification process and

the international market for gluten-free products.

In the course of 2015, the beneficiaries will

receive guidance to ensure their processes are

gluten-free. By June 2015, all beneficiaries will be

audited by NSF in order to receive the gluten-free

certification.

Gluten-free certifications inform consumers with

celiac disease and other gluten-related disorders

about the gluten content of food, beverages and

supplements. Certifiers assess the gluten content

of products and confirm the legitimacy of the

producer’s gluten-free claims.

Billion-dollar market

According to Mintel, a market research agency,

the industry for gluten-free food and beverages

increased by 44 % between 2011 and 2013,

© Tomás Munita © Tomás Munita

reaching a market volume of US $ 10.5 billion in

2013 in the United States. As the consumption of

gluten-free products is increasing among the

general public, Mintel expects the industry to

grow further by around 40 % in the coming years.

Given the growing demand for gluten-free

products, the gluten-free certification programme

opens up further market opportunities for

producers of Andean grains – and quinoa in

particular. Once they are certified, beneficiaries

will be able to market their products as gluten-

free at international trade fairs, thus increasing

the spectrum of potential international buyers.

.

Empowering women in agriculture with

environmental knowledge

Better knowledge about the environment and standards is helping promote gender equality in Kenya and Peru..

Is there a link between women’s economic

empowerment and sustainable and

environmentally friendly trade? At the

International Trade Centre (ITC) we think so. And

this is why ITC’s Trade and Environment

Programme is working to empower women in

agri-food and natural product value chains.

Women producers and collectors are particularly

vulnerable due to disparities between men and

women in land ownership, education and access

to credit. By delivering capacity building on

sustainability and market access to micro, small

and medium-sized enterprises’ (MSMEs) and

their suppliers, the position of women in these

export value chains is strengthened.

For example, in Kenya and Uganda, ITC has

been working with the tea sector to measure and

reduce its energy costs and find ways to adapt to

climate change. In Kenya, the tea sector is a

major employer of women, who represent 60% of

employees. Increased temperatures are having a

marked effect on productivity, and raising costs

for producers in terms of more spraying and

labour.

Joyce Njeri Muchina is one of the 5,600 farmers

who have benefitted from ITC TEP training

programmes. A tea farmer from Makomboki, 90

km north of Nairobi, she says that the ITC project

has increased her annual income from tea by

over 20% and she has also been able to reduce

fuel costs. ‘I can keep my children in school, I can

buy clothes more regularly than before and I

have bought a dairy cow,’ she said.

Techniques learnt by Ms. Muchina include the

identification of new pests migrating to the area

as a result of the warmer weather, and mulching.

Participants also learned techniques in drip

irrigation, which requires 30% to 70% less water

than traditional methods.

Mary Njenga, a bio-energy and environmental

scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre

(ICRAF), who comes from a tea-growing family in

the region, said that the ITC-backed training is

efficient in raising awareness of climate change

and environmental gains to be had from saving

energy. ‘[ITC] are doing a good job in working

with tea factories to enhance their energy use

efficiency, which will not only contribute to

© Tomás Munita © Tomás Munita

mitigating and adapting to climate change, but

will also improve farmers’ benefits,’ she said.

Gender-equality selection criteria for

beneficiaries in Peru

A balanced male-female employee ratio is one of

the main qualification criteria to for MSMEs

wishing to participate in ITC’s Trade and

Environment Programme. This way, the

companies are encouraged to ensure equal pay

and working conditions for women.

In the remote areas of the Peruvian Andes, ITC

beneficiaries are cultivating a range of grains and

fruits, including cacao and quinoa. However, it is

a region where women are often assigned the

traditional role of being a mother and housewife.

Most women marry at a young age and they are

often deprived of secondary education and

access to jobs.

By virtue of its gender-based selection criteria,

ITC is widening opportunities for women to get

jobs in agri-processing companies.

This importance of empowering women in the

workplace is also acknowledged by the

companies ITC works with. ‘In general, female

traders and company trainers interact more with

women on the farm level. As a result, these

women are now encouraged by their husbands to

work on the field during harvest,’ said the head of

one Andean grain exporter working with ITC. And

that matters. Not only are the women given an

opportunity to work, they are also receiving more

respect by demonstrating that they, too, can

provide an income and do a job at least as well

as their husbands.

New Handbook on Trade and Green

Economy Launched in Geneva

ITC collaborating with UNEP and IISD towards greener value chains

A once-antagonistic relationship between the

trade and environment policy communities has

evolved into recognition that the two have

complementary roles to play in sustainable

development, the heads of the United Nations

Environment Programme (UNEP), ITC, and the

European wing of the International Institute for

Sustainable Development (IISD) think tank said

in Geneva this week.

Speaking at the launch of ‘Trade and Green

Economy: A Handbook’, a UNEP-IISD publication

to which ITC had provided editorial content and

financial support, the speakers stressed that

transitioning to a green economy would be crucial

to meeting both development needs while

preserving the natural environment. The event

was hosted by the Geneva-based Graduate

Institute of International and Development

Studies.

The new handbook, the third edition in a series

dating back to 2001, makes clear the complex

relationship between increased trade and

environmental protection. On the one hand,

increased trade and economic activity are often

associated with greater carbon emissions. On the

other, trade spreads low carbon technologies

swiftly, and product standards and regulations

can serve as incentives to improve environmental

practice.

Hailing the work with UNEP as an example of the

UN system ‘delivering as one’, ITC Executive

Director Arancha González said that greening

value chain production and public procurement

would contribute to achieving the prospective

Sustainable Development Goals. Aid for trade

and targeted government policy could play a role

in both, she suggested. González also

emphasised the importance of domestic policy in

making trade contribute to sustainable growth,

and warned that trade rules could not replace

domestic action. ‘The lessons from this book

show that raising trade barriers does not provide

the right solutions,’ she said. ‘Pricing carbon and

introducing strong national environmental

legislation does.’

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said that

the shared pursuit of a green economy offered an

alternative to unnecessarily adversarial

approaches to trade and environmental

negotiations. ‘The objective of this handbook is to

increase coordination and reduce tension

between the international trade and environment

agendas,’ he said. ‘Doing so will allow the power

of trade to open new pathways to achieve

sustainable development.’

‘It is important to think what economy we want

first and then see how trade dynamics can

participate to the transformation of economies

and societies,’ said Mark Halle, Executive

Director of IISD-Europe. ‘The challenge is to

ensure that transformative power is directed

toward sustainable development outcomes, both

within countries and globally.’

ITC is committed to projects that increase trade

opportunities for vulnerable groups whilst

strengthening environmental resilience. For

example, In Kenya, ITC is training thousands of

tea and coffee farmers on climate smart

agriculture techniques and more sustainable

value chain processing. The result of these

interventions more efficient fuel use and

increased income streams for the marginalized

rural populations, particularly women, working in

these agricultural and natural resource value

chains.

Product standards, including the growing number

of private sustainability standards, can shape

green economy pathways, but also risk shutting

out developing country producers unable to

understand or comply with them. ITC’s Standards

Map provides transparency on several hundred

private voluntary standards so that both buyers

and sellers of certified goods understand their

principles and criteria effectively.

ITC -DICE Symposium 'Towards a

Sustainable and Legal Wildlife Trade’

International Trade Centre and Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology (DICE) are jointly organizing a

symposium on ’Towards a Sustainable and Legal Wildlife Trade’ on 18-19 June at the University of Kent...

Scientific and Policy Background

The conservation of flora and fauna is in crisis. Poaching and the illegal trade in wildlife are pushing a

number of iconic species towards extinction. In the legal trade there is a mixed picture of successful trade

models combined with unsustainable harvesting levels of animals, plants and timber, and poor animal

welfare and governance.

Conservation and development goals from the wildlife trade will only be achieved through effective

collaboration and dialogue among governments, practitioners and the private sector, supported by state-of-

the-art research. Despite the global importance of the wildlife trade in political, economic and cultural terms,

policy development and implementation remains poorly supported by research.

In this 2 day symposium we aim to enhance understanding on how to support a trade in wildlife that is

sustainable, legal and consistent with the principles of sustainable development.

Key objectives are to:

foster dialogue between researchers, economists, policy makers, the private sector and other

conservation-related disciplines.

provide evidence-based options for improved conservation trade policy.

establish a research agenda for wildlife trade in the global economy.

The event will be of interest to conservation experts, researchers, managers and officials from government,

private sector, NGOs, international organizations and universities.

Selected papers and case studies will be collected in a book to be published as proceedings of the

conference.

Format

The symposium will run over 2 days:

Day 1 will focus on how economics can contribute to evidence-based policy making for conservation,

including relevant case studies

Day One Themes (non-exclusive)

Economic dimensions of the illegal trade in wildlife

Economic dimensions of the legal wildlife trade

New ways forward. What are the most effective policy instruments to end poaching?

Day 2 will explore research frontiers in wildlife trade from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including

anthropology, sociology, criminology, biology and computer science.

Day Two Themes (non-exclusive)

The role of emerging technologies in regulating and monitoring trade (tracking systems, drones, genetic marking etc.)

The contribution of local communities in tackling the illegal wildlife trade in different legal and socio-ecological systems.

Wild harvesting and its role in maintaining bio-cultural diversity, human wellbeing and resilience.

Effectiveness and ethics of demand reduction strategies and programmes.

Research methods for understanding clandestine activities.

Fees

There is no conference fee. Lunch and refreshments will be provided by the conference’s organizers.

However, presenters and attendees will have to cover their accommodation and travel expenses.

To number of symposium participants is limited to 80. If you wish to attend the symposium please let us

know as early as possible as we anticipate a very high demand.

A small number of travel support and subsistence grants will be awarded to researchers, civil servants and

practitioners from developing countries.

For details on the grants process and to express interest in attendance, please contact Professor Douglas

MacMillan (dcm@kent.ac.uk)

Important Dates & Submission Rules

1 March 2015: Registration opens

30 April 2015: Deadline for submissions of long abstract (600 words max) of paper

15 May 2015: Notifications of long abstracts and posters acceptance for presentation

10 June 2014: Deadline for full paper submission for selected presenters

11 June 2015: Registration closes

Long Abstracts should be submitted in PDF format to Professor Douglas MacMillan (dcm@kent.ac.uk)

Submitters should also indicate whether their submission is for DAY 1 or DAY 2 and if they want their paper

to be considered for the main programme of talks, the poster session and/or conference book.

For more information: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sac/events/ITC_DICE/symposium.html

Location

The event will take place in the School of Anthropology and Conservation, Marlowe Building, the

University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. The campus is located in Canterbury, Kent, 55 minutes by train

from King’s Cross, St Pancras, London.

Contact person: Alexander Kasterine

Head, Trade and Environment Programme

Division of Market Development

E-mail: kasterine@intracen.org

Street address: ITC, 54-56, rue de Montbrillant, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland

Postal address: ITC, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Internet: www.intracen.org/itc-environment-blog/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ITCenvironment

Twitter: @ITCenvironment