Some years ago Bruno went to Thailand to search for additional sources for organic rice for an organic babyfood project where we needed not only organic but also analytically very pure qualities.
On that trip Bruno met some scattered farmers groups that had been working diligently for years to eliminate pesticides and insecticides from their farms and return to a traditional natural agricualtural systems.
Their first focus was not on production for export but to heal their own environment and produce healty food for their own families.
They had good agricultural practice, an informal structure, no legal framework and neither national nor international certifications.
These meetings were the beginning of a great adventure that eventually led to the foundation of the partnership between many Community Enterprises in Amnat Charoen and Foodtech Solutions.
Prime Objectives of the FTS producers
- To preserve the environment by applying organic agricultural knowhow and to eliminatie the application of chemical substances.
- To reduce the input cost and increase productivity by applying know how gathered and exchanged in the network and with 3rd party experts.
- To become self reliant for seed and organic fertilizer production from raw material within the network.
- To develope the village and community infrastrucures by sharing know how and investing the fairtrade premiums for the common good.
- To increase each farmer’s income and standard of living by iincreased productivity and by selling with a premium for certified organic production.
The structure
Today the FTS partner network consists of more about 20 Community Enterprises in AmnatCharoen.
Each Community enterprise has a democratic structure, similar bylaws and an elected board.
These Community Enterprises have joined in a Network that has the following organs:
The General Assembly where the elected representatives of the CEs meet minimum once a year to discuss the general guidelines, rules and regualtions and where the Management committe, the Audit Committee and the officers are elected.
The Management Committe carries out the network business during the year. The MC usually meets once a month to supervise and discuss the actual developments.
The Executive Committee is a smaller group elected from within the Management Committee and intended to carry out daily business decisions of the MC and between MC meetings
The Audit Committee has the task of supervising the performance of the MC and EC and the financial conduct of the Organisation. It is only responsible to the General Assembly and reports its findings directly to the General Assembly.
All voting members of the network are farmers in Thailand. The vast majority today lives and farms in Amnat Charoen, a province on the high plain of North-East Thailand.
All members are farmers, work the fields themself and live in the rural communities.
The FTS Farmers Network is in the process of being certified by the International Fairtrade Labeling Organisations FLO and FairTSA.
All organic farmers that are in cooperation with Foodtech Solutions farm in compliance with the organic agricultural standards of Thailand, the European Union, USA, China and Japan. Today certification has been done according to EU and US standards, certifications according to chinese and japanese standards are possible upon request.
A Community Enterprise Network is a meta structure under the Community Enterprise Promotion Act B.E. 2548 (2005). It allows Community Enterprises to join together to promote their common business interest on a larger scale.This instrument is not very common and subsequently not easy to setup. According to a document published by the ministry of agriculture and cooperatives there are about 38.000 Community Enterprises in Thailand in the area of agricultre and food production but less than 150 Networks (as of June 2011).
If set up and managed properly the Community Enterprise Network allows the farmer to gain the profits from their sales through the Network virtually taxfee. This is a major incentive to the farmers and one of the main commercial reason we have promoted and assisted in setting up this type of business structure for our farming partners.
In the interesting Thesis " An Integrated Knowledge Management Model for Community Enterprises: A Case Study of a Rural Community Enterprise in Thailand" published in 2008 by Lanthom Jonjoubsong BSc, MSc Community Enterprises are defined as follows:"Community enterprises (CEs)... operate their businesses on a small scale with self-employed members and a small amount of capital. In fact, CEs can be classified as a specific type of enterprise. ... CEs are community-owned and operated by a group and have a larger number of members or self-employed workers. ... CE in Thailand usually has around 30-50 members. ... CEs are established with the basic objectives of community development through enhancing the quality of community life and economic development .... According to the community enterprise development centre in Thailand (2001), the main purposes of CEs are to enhance economic and social development, and provide community learning opportunities. ... They do basic production and provide services using local and natural materials, simple technology, local wisdom, and a local labour force which is low in business skills."
This very much describes the Community Enterprises that are the members of the FTS Farmers Network.
The network and FTS
Foodtech Solutions has been involved in the development of the network since its early organisational stages and throughout its three year development phase . We have assisted in drafting the legal structure, the bylaws, the tax optimized structure, we are paying for external experts, internal inspectors, the organic and fairtrade certifications and assist with the vast amount of work needed in the organisation, documentation and continued diligence for certification of such a big and complex organisation.
In each and every aspect we encourage the network to become an independent, self governing entity. We continue to support their organisational develpement. We believe that a good lasting partnership needs strong partners on both sides that are independent and can negotiate and cooperate on equal terms.
FTS has signed longterm contracts with every single farmer. In the cooperation the Farmers will (other than direct sell to local consumers) sell their organic products through FTS and will receive the highest prices in the market for their paddy in return.FTS does carry all 3rd party cost of the inspection and certification system both for Organic and Fairtrade certification process.
The main role of the Farmers Network in the cooperation is to produce and develop the agricultural, social and product quality while FTS focusses is on financing, processing, marketing and sales plus market and process development.
