Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International

Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO ) is an umbrella organization founded in 1997, Fair Trade, based in Bonn. She is partnered with other international umbrella organizations in the network FINE.

The organization develops its own standards for Fair Trade and awards through their national labeling organizations the Fairtrade label for products that have been certified in accordance with this FLO standards.

Organization

Members are national labeling initiatives that are responsible for awarding the Fairtrade label and public relations in various countries, here below from the German speaking TransFair Germany, Max Havelaar Fairtrade for Switzerland and Austria. More Full members are producer networks and marketing organizations. There are also associate members. In 2010, a total of 19 labeling initiatives, three producer organizations and two marketing organizations were members.

Select the full members of the Board, one quota rules apply: five board members are elected by the national labeling initiatives, four of the producer organizations. Another five are appointed by the Board itself. The Board shall appoint committees, including in particular, the committee developed the Fairtrade standards. FLO has about 70 employees who are active worldwide in Bonn or as liaison at the club headquarters.

FLO works closely with the FLO -CERT GmbH, which is responsible for certification of producers and traders. FLO -CERT has to be accredited according to ISO 65 as an independent certification organization. This is to demonstrate quality management, transparency and independent certification decisions

History

The organization was founded in 1997 as a joint umbrella organization for 17 previously independent national labeling initiatives. In 2002, FLO introduced the common fair trade label. In 2004, FLO -CERT was established to provide independent certification of producers and traders.

Market

Estimates of the FLO in 2009 according bearing the Fairtrade Mark products were sold in about 70 countries with a total volume of 3.4 billion euros. The main sales markets, as measured by total revenues, were the United Kingdom, the USA, France, Germany, Canada and Switzerland. In 2009, there were Fairtrade standards for more than 20 product groups. The most important, in terms of number of remote units, were flowers, fruits, sugar, coffee and fruit juices.