When I arrived at the market place in a town of Zambales Province with the Preda Fair Trade team, I was  to  meet the  women tribal leaders of the Aeta community  from the mountains. We found them at the back of the market and they were very disappointed and angry. We sat in the shade of a tree to hear their story of commercial exploitation and traders cheating. 

They told me their men had spent two days climbing the mango trees and harvesting the mango fruits, both carabao and pico variety, and they had carried them in sacks to the town to sell them. The selling price of the mango retail by the town’s traders was 35 pesos a kilo but the Aeta had only been offered 5 pesos a kilo. This would not be enough to earn them enough money to buy a few kilos of rice. They said it was unjust and unfair they were being cheated by a corrupt trading system. This  favored the  rich and exploited the poor. 

This is one of the very reasons that poor farmers remain poor and why indigenous tribal people of the Philippines and elsewhere are among the poorest of the poor. They can survive on their ancestral lands by growing a variety of vegetables, raising chickens and goats but when they need medicine, school supplies for their children to go to school or to buy clothes and household items, they come up short of cash. Their products are not given the right and true value. They have no one to protest to or appeal the rigged system.

The sale of their agriculture products is their only hope of earning an income. But they are frequently cheated and exploited. They have to borrow money from the commercial traders in the markets and that is another reason they have to accept a very low price for their banana, coconut and mangos products.

Many a scholarly paper and institution research work on the roots of poverty overlooks the social and trade injustice factor in the lives of hundreds of thousands of small farmers. The rich dominate the trade and can dictate the buying price of the products.

This was the problem that we were determined to solve and to do it through Fair Trade and making the products organically certified. We worked with the indigenous Aeta farmers and held meetings and seminars on fair trade criteria and the organic standards. It turned out that little trading company we set up was able to find an export market among the World Shops and in supermarkets that paid a fair price for the products and this we passed on to the farmers.

Instead of just five pesos a kilo, we offered to buy their pico and carabao mangos at a much higher price a kilo. The farmers were elated at this high price and they all agreed to follow the criteria of being fair in their lives. They attended seminars and training in organic methods and standards.

They learned how important it is to respect the rights of women and children. Although the Aeta women are fairly empowered and several are elders or chieftains of their small groups in the remote mountain villages. The training is also to improve hygiene and sanitation in the villages and send their children to school and never to make them work other than help around the house and farm.

The project brings additional help in providing thousands of mango saplings, coconut seedlings, cacao and coffee plants to the farmers to strengthen their historical and legitimate claims on their ancestral lands and provide more and a variety of  crops for future income. They received hand pumps for their villages and in one village a water system with a holding tank and distribution pipes was built.

The organic training over a three year period was the most challenging of all. The Aeta farmers live in the remote mountains and while there are no chemical used, there is strict monitoring. They could not afford chemicals or pesticides but they had their natural fertilization methods for their crops already. What was challenging was training leaders to monitor and make regular inspections of the mountain range to be sure all the organic criteria were being implemented and to document everything.  

These simple yet wise and intelligent farmers knew and loved their environment upon which their survival depended. They could easily understand that the forest has to be guarded and protected. Finally, they were ready for the visit of the local and international organic inspectors.

They came and spent a few days visiting the area at random, looking to see the mango growing areas were clean of any chemicals or unacceptable farming methods. They inspected the reams of documents prepared and finally they left. 

A few months later and after much payment for fees, travel payments and expenses of the inspectors, the area was declared to be organic.  It was and is a great achievement. Now we have to see that it stays that way. We hope the climate change will not damage the flowering of the trees and the farmers will have a good harvest and earn higher prices for their organic fair traded mangos.