All products evaluated by Fairdirect e.V. get a label for their packaging, showing the following two main parts:
(1) Product Fairness Level
The Fairdirect e.V. association offers a new, fast type of product information based on objective data about the fairness of all production steps involved.
Using a fixed scheme, we evaluate data about the mode of animal husbandry and slaughter, the production mode and location of raw and auxiliary materials, the number and length of transports, adequateness of wages along the whole production chain, energy consumption and processing quality.
Resulting from this, the product’s level of fairness is depicted as a single metric in a colored range. The data points are submitted by producers and checked by Fairdirect testers who visit and evaluate producers at the site of production. In addition to collecting and checking data, they write a short report with their impressions on a producer’s page on Epelia, the Fairdirect online marketplace.
(2) QR Code
The label also contains a QR code encoding the link to a product’s page on the Epelia marketplace. Using it, it is very simple to buy the same product again.
An example: You bought a product on a farmers market when on vacation, or you received it as a gift, and now want to buy more of the same. By scanning the QR code on the product, you can immediately visit the product’s page on Epelia, the Fairdirect online marketplace. On this page, you find the usual product information, its online retail price, and ways to obtain it (a certain farmers market, a Fairdirect shelf in a certain shop etc.). In addition, the sources of its raw materials, and detailed product fairness information. Now you can purchase this product, perhaps together with other products of the same producer, the same shipment center, or other Fairdirect products sold directly by producers. Just put it into your shopping basked, click and go through “checkout”, done.
The Fairdirect e.V. association also offers this infrastructure to organizations with compatible goals. They can use the Fairdirect label and the Epelia marketplace in combination with their own logo instead of the Fairdirect one. They would use the same scheme to calculate the product fairness information for products, and check the accuracy of producers’ data together with Fairdirect e.V. or with own means, as desired.
All of this contributes to our vision of a global network for fair and direct trade of food items, without intermediate traders and with objective product information. For further information, you are welcome to contact us.
