FAQ

1. I think Social & FairTrade Certification may be right for my company; how do I determine the specific costs and steps needed to get certification?

The first step is to contact your local IMO representative. A listing of contact information of the various IMO world offices is found by going to the IMO website.
When you contact your representative, you may discuss with them the various certifications and how they may apply to your company’s special situation. The IMO representative will also give you an application form that can be used by us to begin drafting a budget and timeline for attaining certification. You may also attend a webinar held on the Social & FairTrade Programme, or have a special webinar scheduled for your company. Click here to find out the webinar schedule or contact webinar@fairforlife.net.

2. How much does the certification cost?

Certification costs vary depending on the size and complexity of your operation/supply chain, which certification is being attained, the location of producers (the local costs and travel time), and in the case of fair trade, whether or not you are already certified organic. If you are certified organic by IMO, it reduces the cost of fair trade certification, as part of our work in building a chain of custody is already done in this process. You may contact your representative for an individual cost estimate or cost examples.

3. How long does it take?

The length of time for attaining certification depends on how long it will take you to meet the certification criteria. However, Fair for Life certification is performed using the published programme. We suggest you obtain a copy of the programe for certification and use this as an internal training document. The programme is easy to use and you can score yourself to have an idea where you will stand for certification. After confirming your application for certification (along with your approval of the budget), we organise the audit; then all results are reviewed and the certification is finalised.

4. What kinds of products does it cover?

Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Certification is available for a wide range of products, e.g. for all agricultural products (like oils, herbs, spices, vegetables & fruit etc.), seafood, cut flowers, handicrafts, cotton and textiles, and even toys! Because we do not use a product-specific standard for certification, certification of your entire assortment of raw materials or any multi-ingredient and finished products may be possible if they originate from certified fair trade sources.
You can also choose to be certified only as a company, without product certification. Social Responsibility Certification in particular can be used to demonstrate to your clients that your entire company meets high social standards, and no actual product certification may be needed.

5. What are the main characteristics of the different certifications offered in the Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Programme?

The Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Programme essentially consists of two certification options: “Fair for Life” - Social & FairTrade Certification and “For Life” - Social Responsibility Certification. We consider the Fair for Life Social & FairTrade efforts to be a “Programme” because the certifications are designed to help guide you in creating your own meaningful programmes in-house which can grow as your company grows.
Another option is that sometimes companies approach us with their already developed internal social code and would like for us to act as third party auditor (Individual Performance Evaluation).
FairWild covers the important social and fair trade aspects of wild harvesting.

6. Do I have to be certified organic to get Fair for Lfie Social & FairTrade Certification?

You do not need to be certified organic, but if you are already organic (or if the product you want certified is organic), then it streamlines the effort to add fair trade certification on top of it. However, Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Certification ensures certain minimal environmental criteria are met, therefore, if you don’t have any organic or other certification that confirms compliance with environmental minimum good practices, you will need to fulfill the additional environmental minimum criteria in addition to the actual social & fair trade criteria.
If you are going for FairWild Certification, it is assumed that you are either certified organic or complying with ISSC-MAP criteria or that you have developed a concept and action timetable to reach full compliance with organic and/or ISSC-MAP standards within 1-3 years.

7. Who pays for the certification of a producer?

The producer pays for the certification, although it is also common for a buyer in an economically more developed country to pay for the certification of its key producers.

8. If I pay for the certification of my producers, does this mean they can turn around and sell fair trade ingredients to my competitors?

We recommend that the certified company and the buyer who pays for certification (the mandator) discuss these issues openly and have some kind of written agreement or memorandum of understanding about their cooperation and expectations. Technically, the company that pays for the certification “owns” the certificate; however, reciprocity of some sort can be built into the relationship from the beginning. For example, companies can agree that in return for the mandator paying full initial certification costs, the certified company pays half the certification costs in the second year. However, because of the requirements of fair trade the mandator must permit the certified company to also sell to other companies under fair and appropriate conditions. If it turns out that the certified company benefits substantially from the certification for transactions with other clients, it would be adequate to re-pay a fair share of the certification cost.

9. I buy from producers who are not smallholders; is certification still open to me?

Yes, the Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Certification has been designed to cover genuine fair trade efforts and initiatives in various agricultural systems, such as contract growers, as well as plantations or manufacturing and trading operations. The larger and more commercial the supply structures, the more focus will be on your demonstration of high social commitment and own efforts towards workers welfare and community benefits.

10. If Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Certification is not product-specific, how is the fair trade premium determined?

The cornerstone of the Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Certification is transparency. IMO requires that there is a fair trade premium. It should be fair to the buyer and producer and is paid into a fair trade fund that then can be used for agreed social projects or for paying higher farmgate prices to smallholder farms. The premium is generally recommended to be within the range of 10% the farmgate price, and should be agreed to in a contract so that IMO can follow it up.

11. Who already holds this certification?

You may see a listing of currently certified (not those who may be in progress) operations by visiting the fair for life certified operators page on this website. Examples include olive oil from the Middle East, coconut oil from Asia and Africa, palm oil from Africa, and apples from small-scale farmers in remote areas of South America.

12. Once my producer and I decide on an agreed-upon premium, do all of our transactions have to be fair trade?

Yes, all of the transactions between a fair trade producer and buyer are required to be fair trade according to your own fair trade agreements.

13. For a multi-ingredient product, what % of my ingredients need to undergo certification, and how is this declared on the label?

IMO follows similar rules to what is used by organics, in that the major amount of the products (that are able to be certified as fair trade) in a multi-ingredient product need to be fair trade certified to allow the label claim that it is a fair trade product. However, if just one or two products that are minor ingredients are used in a product, such as vanilla for flavour, it is allowed to claim, “made with fair trade vanilla extract”. For details please see chapter 1.2.2.4 of the IMO Social & FairTrade Programme.

14. Can we obtain a Social & FairTrade Certification for our fair trade production project in the US or other developed nation?

For Life- Social Responsibility Certification may be a good option to demonstrate that all your / your producer’s workers enjoy excellent working conditions and are treated fairly (which includes also migrant and other temporary workers).
Fair for Life - Social & FairTrade Certification of e.g. farmers groups in the US or Europe is possible, but has pilot character and will require a well prepared specifically developed fair trade approach to be demonstrated by the applicant.

15. What are the target groups of the fair trade premium?

For longer supply chains there is a need for an overall fair trade policy that defines the main target groups for fair trade. Depending on the situation these will be only the primary producers/smallholders, or the main target may actually be workers in the processing factory rather, or in some cases both. Other target groups could be, for example, agricultural workers on medium size farms. The fair trade policy includes a rough social analysis on the most marginalized groups
in the specific project situation, and how/to what extent they can be reached by fair trade.

16. What if my suppliers are certified organic by other certifiers than IMO?

IMO has local offices in more than 25 countries worldwide and currently performs audits in approximately 90 countries (and will go to almost any country unless prohibited by law). We can certainly find a well-adapted solution for your particular supply situation. Depending on the organic certification body in origin and the location of the supplier, we may require an additional Fair for Life Social & FairTrade audit, or in some cases may consider cooperating with the other certification body's auditor, at least for follow-up visits to keep costs reasonable. A few organic certifiers have also started their own social or fair trade certification programmes, some of which we will accept as equivalent based on detailed reports.

17. Which other social or fair trade certification schemes are accepted as equivalent?

Fair for Life has a mutual equivalency agreement with Soil Association Ethical Trade and unilaterally accepts FLO-Cert certified FLO/Transfair/Max Havelaar Fairtrade products as equivalent. Acceptance of Fair Trade certification according to other programmes depends on individual equivalency decisions based on the individual evaluation of respective audit reports.

18. Does Fair for Life Social & FairTrade Certification also cover environmental aspects?

Certified companies must be either Organic, Utz Certified, Rainforest Alliance or GlobalGAP certified, or must demonstrate good production practices by additional evaluation of the Fair for Life Additional Integrated Production criteria.
Additionally, performance in some key environmental aspects such as water and energy conservation, ecosystem protection and waste management is evaluated for all operations worldwide

19. What are the main differences between Fair for Life FairTrade and other schemes

Please click here for an overview about the characteristics of the "fair for life" system.