“If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.” – William Shakespeare on Hamlet
For almost half a century, the once aspired and celebrated model of fair trade and grassroots empowerment through muscovado sugar – dubbed as the poor man’s sugar, faces allegations of malpractice in its production of the trademark product. This may tarnish, if not threaten the island’s reputation and undermine the organic and fair trade movement locally and among its partners abroad, built for the longest time, if allegations are indeed true. I am of the thought that the subject of the said allegation is Alter Trade Philippines Inc. based in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.
TRICK OR DECEIT?
The small producer partners Negros, who for decades supplied Alter Trade with sugarcane for muscovado sugar production claim that since their partnership they have never produced any organic sugarcane but only that they were taught how to falsify documents for organic certification as the major requirement for compliance. The organization cannot proceed with its fair trade certification and ultimately process export of the product if the raw material – the sugarcane is not awarded with organic certification.
LOCAL SHAKE-UP, NATIONAL SHAME
Locally, this “scam” has become a laughing stock among government field workers and some who are privy to the dynamics of the organization disguising as an advocate of “sustainable agriculture.” An imagined reality or a disillusionment among organic practitioners in Negros and Bacolod, because the capability of the organization is highly suspect as far as producing muscovado sugar is concerned. For a few times, the organization refused to host government agencies for ocular and exposure visits to their mill site in Bago City for educational purposes and possible partnership. It is believed that allowing the mill visits will open its pandora’s box.
Small sugarcane producers who severed ties with Alter Trade reportedly have borne the brunt of this deception more than the organization itself on three major fronts – the tarnished reputation of their organization and the local communities where they belong, the guilt of being party to the continuing betrayal and deception of their customers, and the shame that could possibly be put on the government from the local to the international stage.
BITTER-SWEET FALLOUT
This rattled the direct consumer partners in Europe, as well as partners in Asia because of this alleged malpractice. Reliable sources disclosed that this year a series of shipments of mascobado sugar from Alter Trade were either returned or stopped due to quality issues that paved the way for an independent investigation by one of the European partners. This gives substance to the allegations of the small sugarcane producers. There is now an avenue for reckoning and an opportunity for the organization – a chance to undertake significant institutional systemic failures not only to regain trust from its partners, but more importantly regain the market.
They must prove that the partners do not tolerate such malpractice and betrayal and that they must undertake measures to address this systemic failure because they are the ones who have fallen victims for the longest time. International trade partners will not tolerate putting the relationship at risk, it is on the brink of collapse. The four decades of fair trade relationship built around this poor man’s sugar is wrapped by deception and whose leaders persistently refused to undertake major overhaul of its system failure, and only satisfy themselves with rhetoric. One cannot imagine that for the longest time a practice so infamous persists was tolerated by partners abroad in the name of “fair trade and people-to-people trading relationship.”
LONG OVERDUE DEMISE
It is time to put this to a stop. The partnership was not meant to build and strengthen the leaders of institutions that facilitate the product, but of the producers and the consumers themselves. This must not cause further damage to the organic and fair trade movement. The only way to stop this is for the consumers to take action against this damaging and destructive demise created by an ambitious illusion of fair trade and people-to-people relationship created by its own leaders.
Finally, the government must take corresponding action against this practice that puts at risk the reputation not only of the province but of the whole country in general. A vision of an alternative socio-economic society is a complete farce when “the reason for being are the farmers and the small sugarcane producers,” yet it has drifted apart and is only lip-service.*
