Informed choices: difficult, not impossible |

January 28

Informed choices: difficult, not impossible

The more he speaks, the more we realize the objective difficulty in controlling the activities of our consumers.
The painstaking care necessary to avoid unethical finance companies, to promote the local economy, to bring to the table to buy healthy foods and environmentally friendly products can actually lead to a decent sense of oppression.
The solution? Sorry, we did not, but hold on because we bring bad news.
Most concerns are related to the fact that food and clothing, but they are really the only sectors with a high global impact?
Of course not, and if you eat eggplant stuffed with pesticides produced hundreds of miles from home can make digestion difficult, we see that restless nights can give a heavy conscience.
We particularly do not like the editorial cut flowers, but we know that in many circumstances are almost inevitable, many people also still have the habit of using them as decoration, and then fade away to the decks and should be changed every day.
No one judges anyone, but if you want to buy fresh flowers at least be sure of the origin, just as you would for a salad or a steak, and you will be sure not to have saved a few euros on the skin of an exploited worker.
Read on and get an idea.

FLOWERS (AND PINS) OF ETHIOPIA
Journey to a New African business of roses

Mark Found.

The flower industry is shifting its huge greenhouses on the Ethiopian highlands. To benefit from the favorable environmental and political. And especially the abundance of low cost labor. A report to find out how it really works the petals of African

The procession begins at dawn. Timely as every morning, a long snake of colored men and women looking sleepy pours on "avenue of flowers".
So is called the wide road that runs along dirt for over a mile, the largest planting of roses in Ethiopia. The workers decided to step through it with no delay to the work.
Someone comes by bicycle. More staggered come on crowded carts pulled by mules. For the appointment is at the entrance of Sher Ethiopia Plc, the great city of flowers sort just two years ago near the town of Ziway, 160 km south of Addis Ababa.

It's the new capital of the Ethiopian floriculture, the symbolic place of a booming market that already produces 25 million dollars per year and that in the near future, according to experts, will become the leading voice of the exports of one of the most powerful nations of 'Africa.
Simply scroll with the eye the impressive row of greenhouses that extends to the horizon, to sense the scope of this economic boom. This is where we must begin to investigate the secrets of an industry which now occupies 13 thousand employees. But over the next twelve months - promise the authorities - will create at least 100 thousand new jobs in a country where the unemployed are 40 per cent of the population.

A new mirage

A Ziway hope for a job every day with blooming roses of Sher Ethiopia. The workers are caught fast in a gate guarded by stern-looking guards, with rifles slung over their shoulders, are responsible for monitoring documents and search anyone. Only the lucky ones, those who are holding a badge worn, the identification of employees, may enter.
The others are left out, forced to stop on the square in front. There are hundreds of unemployed young people who came from far and near in search of a secure income. But there are also so-called "day laborers", people living in the countryside and which has, between sowing and harvest, a little 'time to be used to supplement meager earnings. They wait for hours, crouched on the floor, chatting with each other to pass the time, in the hope of being called by some department manager. "It's the third day I come here without being able to work," complains a girl with a head full of braids and eyes full of weariness. "At the entrance they pass only the friends and acquaintances, and for us who come from villages all becomes more difficult ... We have no alternative but to wait and hope."
The sun begins to bite, and would-be workers took refuge in a state of apparent torpor. Remain motionless, silent, with eyes half-closed pointed at the big iron gate. "It's a way around the prison," he sighs with a resigned tone, a man caught peeping between the bars. "For once I do envy people who are behind bars. I'd do anything to end up in there too. "

Better not complain

On the other side of the fence you open an orderly world, dynamic, hardworking and efficient appearance. The plantation workers to disappear in the greenhouses that extend for more than five hundred acres of land. In there will be at least seven hours of the day, at an average temperature of thirty degrees. "It's hard but you get used to," says a boy who crossed while pushing a wheelbarrow of dry leaves outside a greenhouse. "I'm lucky because every time I leave the nursery and take a breath of fresh air."
The daily wage is 7 birr, about 60 cents, something more if it touches the evening shift, twice when working on Sundays. The management speaks of "adequate wages," in reality is the statutory minimum. "Sure would pay us better, but I'm not complaining," says the young man as he turns his gaze over the fence. "Out there, there are many people who would be at my place ... Better to work hard and do not protest leaders would soon find a replacement." Already. The head of the leaders here called Peter Van Heukelom GD, but everyone knows him as "Peter the Dutchman." It is a fifty friendly and smiling, curly hair and round spectacles reminiscent of Harry Potter. Together with a pair of Flemish colleagues directs the Ziway Roses, one of the most important companies operating in Ethiopia flowers.

Who gains?

"In just two years we've quintupled our revenue," he explains. "Now we produce up to 200 per square meter rose buds. It is an excellent result, achieved thanks to the favorable climatic conditions, the ideal altitude and fertility of the earth, constantly irrigated with water from nearby Lake Ziway. " Besides the floral business is favored by the government in Addis Ababa, which is encouraging foreign investment in the country.
"For the first five years of business we do not pay any tax," explains Peter. "Besides, the import of machinery and infrastructure is no customs fees." Not only. The monthly rent of the land is cheap, just $ 200 per acre, and bank loans are granted on favorable terms.
To complete the picture we are the World Bank aid and trade preferences that the EU guarantees for products from Ethiopia, for which no duty applies. "Finally there's plenty of low cost labor," Peter rightly points out. "Ours is not a new form of colonialism and economic exploitation. Is globalization an opportunity for all: for us entrepreneurs and for those thousands of Ethiopians who now can count on a stable income and a good job. Thanks to our flowers. "

The health of the flowers ...

The greenhouses are used mostly women. From seventeen years of age. We see them slowly slide the long lines of colorful blooms, skillfully untangling the tangle of thorny branches, camouflaged among tens of thousands of roses bloom soon. Some workers involved in removing diseased leaves, others prune the plants so that they grow healthy and strong.
Not wearing gloves or aprons. Not even the shadow masks to protect themselves from pesticides. "They are not necessary - said Peter -: chemicals are sprayed in the evening when the workers have finished work. If they occupy specialized technicians equipped with protective suits. We keep the health of our workers. " Certainly the health care of the flowers is not lacking. Each rose is carefully inspected before being collected: the possible spread of diseases or pests in smoke would send tens of thousands of dollars.
After passing quality control, packaging department to pass the stems to be cut by hand to precise lengths. It cleaned up, one by one, by the thorns. "Kindness is the hallmark of our roses," said Peter proudly. "Never, no European woman may receive a gift when pricked." On the other hand, Ethiopian hands of many workers have broken nails and are full of small wounds. "It is inevitable that some one gets hurt, it happens in all the nurseries," cut short Peter. "Therefore there is the company infirmary." This time it was granted for the visit is almost finished.

The long journey

The roses are now being moved into cold storage, the warehouse where they are bundled up like Eskimos, only to be loaded on special trucks to the airport. During the journey will never leave the so-called "cold chain", a system that allows you to keep the flowers in a controlled environment and at a temperature a few degrees.
In less than twenty hours of collection will arrive in Holland, the world center for the sorting of cut flowers, where the big distributors and then re-acquire the rest of the world. It is the task of national wholesalers to get the roses to the supermarkets and florists of New York, Delhi, Moscow or Paris. After traveling thousands of kilometers long, which helps to make more precious the petals Africans.
In Amsterdam there are the largest nursery industry auctions, real handbags dedicated to supply and demand of flowers, which strongly affect the price formation. "The value of a list changes every day," explains Peter to be demobilized. "During holidays and special events worldwide demand pushing up the numbers." A flower shop in a West may also be sold at five, seven dollars. A value of ten days of work for those who have grown in Ethiopia.

Suspicions and accusations

"It's a shame," thundered sister Elisa, a Salesian nun, aggressive and combative, for years a missionary in Ziway. "European business leaders are getting rich on the backs of poor Ethiopians, which moreover are forced to work in harsh conditions, without any union protection and health." The religious point your finger at an alleged abuse of fertilizers and relates to a breeder in Ziway who recently lost twenty cows' died after eating the leaves which had been thrown out of the greenhouses. " He tells us also that some workers would have had fertility problems and views, after working in the greenhouses.
But in the main local clinic, Dr. Nebiat Fikru not confirm. "There are rumors in town, and I can not exclude that they were valid, but so far I have never come to visit a patient who had complained about some problems to work on the plantations." Only prejudices then? "Not at all," Sister Elisa protest. "The workers who become ill are sent to a private clinic that is Mojo. Far from prying eyes. Entrepreneurs of the flowers are trying to put everything in silence, with the complicity of the authorities. But I personally know a girl who has had to be hospitalized for gynecological problems began with the work in the greenhouses ... Now the wealthy lords of Roses wants to open a hospital in Ziway for a clean conscience. Hypocrites. "

Escape from Kenya

Failure to comply with health standards and rules is a labor problem is not new to the flower industry. In Kenya the scandal broke in two thousand foreign companies present in the vicinity of Lake Naivasha. Some environmental organizations launched the alarm for the uncontrolled use of pesticides, the Kenya Human Rights Commission spoke of the "brutal treatment against the workers', and Women Workers Association signaled cases of sexual abuse among workers in the greenhouses.
Began an international campaign of pressure against the "flowers of evil" that had great press coverage. In recent years some large European farmers have left the plantations in the Kenyan to move closer and more peaceful Ethiopia, and those who remained are meditating in the Horn of Africa to lure new investment. The reasons for emigration are evident. The local labor is even cheaper and the cost of aviation - which account for 50% of production costs - are almost halved. "Also here can count on the unconditional support of the government sells off European companies the best land in the country," Sister Elisa bitter end.

A future "pink"?

In fact, the Ethiopian authorities are pushing hard on the business of flowers - which already is the third national industry by revenue, after export of coffee and leather - and the state television continuously transmits commercials that show how to transform arid lands Magic in the expanses of multicolored maps. Now Ethiopian troops arrive in Dutch businessman, Israelis, Indians.
But who now believed in the potential of local flower was an Italian entrepreneur Alberto Salek, born in Eritrea and lived for many years in Addis Ababa. "I was the first to grow roses here. It was enough grounds to ask the government to get serious and work with flowers of excellent quality, better than Kenyans. " Today Mr. Salek is the majority shareholder of Ethiodream Plc, a company that employs 180 full development workers and produces 30 thousand stems per day. "I am pleased, of course, but I am down to earth," points out the manager. "The Ethiopian flower industry is growing much, but still the problem of the rainy season here lasts about 6 months. And then there's the sharp fluctuations in markets during the summer demand and prices fall while our expenses do not know stop. It is early to make evaluations, but still would not talk of "Ethiopian flowers boom. '"
Who does not skimp on is enthusiastically Tsegaye Abebe, President of Ehpea, the industry association that has 32 companies, half of which are foreign. "The future of Ethiopia will always be more" rosy "," assures the man playing with words. "We look forward to one hundred new large flower growers to multiply the area of plantations. Within a year we plan to have another five hundred hectares. We'll get to produce 300 million dollars of revenue, totaling 50 thousand tons of petals. " And an impressive mountain of thorns.

About the author: Mark Found is an independent journalist and photographer, produces reports from the African continent.
And 'coordinator of the Africa.
Collaborate with radio, newspapers, publishing houses.
Care intercultural education projects aimed at the educational world.

The site: http://www.reportafrica.it/

This page http://www.reportafrica.it/reportages.php?reportage=254

WHAT TO DO THEN?

You can start by signing the online petition in support of the international code of conduct for the production of cut flowers ( http://fioriediritti.org /), created by La Bottega Supportive non-profit organization.
On the same site you can read how the flower market is a present reality and detrimental to the developing countries. The export of production and processing plants flowers abroad impoverishes our country and uses the resources of the workers most in need, as do all types of industry.
Try Italian certified flowers, and if you are regular consumers or professionals, keep abreast of developments in the application of the Code of Conduct ( http://www.redcentury.it/swf/secondo_protocollo.swf ), to protect the rights of workers and protecting the environment.
Even buying a flower for his girlfriend, the decorations for the wedding, the homage to the mother can be a gesture invested with meaning.
Unfortunately, these crops should be highly productive and are antithetical to a biological approach: if you produce cut flowers in an environmentally friendly manner or feel your business is an example of florists, please contact us and we will give you space on our review and recommend to our readers.