Why we need Living Wages

We live in a globalized world where we are constantly buying products without knowing if the workers, who produced them, received a decent wage. That goes for our clothes, our food, our mobile phones, our cars, everything. Of course, the lower the wages in those faraway countries, the lower the price we pay here. If we always go for the lowest price, we support exploitation.

 

Impact

As an organic fruit and vegetable company, we try to do things differently. Fairness, care, ecology and health are the guiding principles of organic agriculture. Through our trade, we want to have a positive impact on people’s lives, not just in Europe, but also in the countries where we source our products.

 

Social certifications do not guarantee Living Wages

Social certification helps us to ensure safe and healthy working conditions. Although these certifications ensure safe and healthy working conditions, they rarely guarantee a Living Wage for the workers involved. Mostly they do guarantee legal minimum wages. These can be much lower than a Living Wage. It’s a good start, but it’s not good enough for us.

 

Pioneering

So we started working on the issue of Living Wage. Living Wages are a very new development in the field of sustainability, so we’re pioneering here. Actually, our Living Wage gap assessment for our mango supplier Fruiteq is the first of its kind for an SME company in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector, worldwide.

 

Changing the foundations of our economy

Paying a decent wage should not lower your competitive strength as a company. Unfortunately, economic reality is different. This can only be changed, if we change the very foundations of our economy. We need to put an economic value to fairness, ecology, care and health. That is what True Cost Accounting is all about. If you want to know more about True Cost Accounting, please check our webpage: https://www.natureandmore.com/en/discover-the-true-cost-of-food

 

Responsibility

Through our Living Wage assessments, we want to initiate discussions and raise awareness amongst buyers and consumers. We can show how much it costs to give all workers a Living Wage, per kg of fruit. And our European clients and consumers can take responsibility by paying a living wage inclusive price.

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