Last October 29th and 31st, the International Ethical Trade Forums were held at the AC Forum hotel in Seville and at the Siete Coronas hotel in Murcia.
On this occasion retailers and import companies that are currently supporting the Forums, accompanied the production companies throughout the day that was facilitated by Sergio Barberá. In Sevilla Luke Jones from Waitrose and Emma Henry from Berryworld, and in Murcia Heather Cadden from Marks & Spencer and Karen Whiting from DPS presented the retailers and importers vision about the Forum and some global news on ethical trade.
. Sevilla Ethical Trade Forum . October 29th, 2019
One of the most expected parts of the agenda were the experts presentations about traffick of workers and labour exploitation in the sector and the adaptation and implementation of the recent legislative changes related to time control given by Ms. Blanca González García (Inspector of Labour and Social Security at the ITSS Provincial of Huelva) in Sevilla and in Murcia by Mr. Diego Martínez Rafecas (Territorial Director-Chief of Inspection in the Labour and Social Security Inspection of Murcia).
Both expert speakers along with representatives of growers associations (UPA), importers (Gs), social organizations (RED ACOGE & CEPAIM), unions (CCOO) and the forum attendees held debates in both forums about the reality of the causes, risks and impact of the lack of workers in the sector and how to establish lines of collaboration through public and private initiatives to position the wellfare of workers as a mechanism of attraction and retention in the companies of the sector. Some challenges and solutions were commented through the automation and new technologies that could help creating the necessary systems that will allow these future effective collaboration platforms.
Also several International collaborative initiatives were presented:
- Food Network for Ethical Trade (FNET) by Melville Miles (GREENCORE)
- The Ethical Trade Forum in Egypt by Manal Saleh (Blue Moon)
- The South African experience – SIZA by Tania Moodley (TESCO)
- In Sevilla also; The Better Strawberries Group & AMDRHA(Morocco) by Otman El Qacemi (Driscoll´s)
. Murcia Ethical Trade Forum . October 31st, 2019
The attendees received with great interests the best practice cases explained by participants from the companies BIONEST, SUN SALAD SPAIN and THE SUMMER BERRY COMPANY PORTUGAL in Sevilla, and AGRUPAPULPI and AM FRESH in Murcia and participated in the afternoon workshops that were facilitated by Residencia El Tariquejo, Stronger Together, Conexion Social and the members of the Huelva working group who delivered an outstanding and very dynamic workshop.
We would like to thank everyone that collaborated in making this great events so participative and hopefuly useful for all who attended them and will be happy to see you in the next ones planned for March 2020.