Dick Nagtegaal's Page

Fair Trade is a good start, but the Relationship Business Model seems to be the next step and full of benefits that just can’t be delivered through Fair Trade. The Fair Trade advantage is around the assurances that are built into the system. Relationship Business Model is based on layers of trust - between the grower (Farmer Cooperative) and the processor and between the consumer and the processor.
We can buy raw products in a more sustainable and ethical manner. This involves travelling to where the product is grown, building relationships directly with the farmers, creating a joint ownership agreement between the cooperative of primary producers and a North American business involved in marketing and sales of the product, establishing standards for excellence in environmentally sound agricultural practices, facilitating the acquisition of organic certification, providing interim capital funding and micro-finance loans to help producers improve their farming practices, and developing a tracking system to record the location and environmental conditions where the product was grown. This Relationship Business Model reassures the buyer about the high quality of the product and the producer that sustainable income is being directed to the farmers and their families. For me there is something very satisfying about being able to trust people – rather than corporations.
We want to create a truly fair approach to the whole process so that the farmer is connected with the all the steps in production from the farm gate to the product sale. These Coop farmers are encouraged to be part owners in the Relationship Business so they may have a sustainable income to provide for the nutritional, medical and educational needs of their families. Ownership in the Relationship Business will provide benefit from the sale of the raw product but also from the value added product sold in Canada and the USA. The added benefit of ownership will help farmers to become more self sufficient and less dependant on North American brokers, which often take a significant piece of the profit pie.