Twin’s mission is to positively redress the trade imbalance between the North and South; to build better livelihoods for the most marginalized in the trading chain and to promote developmental and longer-term shifts in their economic environment.
The expansive growth of the organic sector over the past few years has seen many new entrants into an increasingly complicated market place.
For many producers in the developing world, the cost and problems associated with using agrochemicals have often meant they are likely to grow their crops organically by “default”. This has allowed them to take advantage of the potential benefits in gaining access to the additional market that certification brings.
However, differences in organic standards, inspection and certification procedures together with import regulations in the countries of destination have proved serious obstacles for producers, traders and others in the chain. Twin’s work in the organic sector seeks to redress this.
Twin’s Organic Expertise
Twin has worked in the organic sector since 1994, building a high level of expertise in organic certification and through its focus on fair trade has gathered specific knowledge on smallholder organic issues.
Twin now has a valuable network of contacts with certifiers, member state authorities, traders and producers within the sector. This knowledge and contact base has allowed us to enter the wider arena of the organic movement, and influence the development of important requirements affecting smallholder commodity producers.
Some Selected Achievements – 1999/2004
-
Co-organised 3 workshops on Smallholder Grower Group Certification with (AgroEco) (Feb 2001, Feb 2002, Feb 2003).
-
Development of Internal Control System
workshops and training of farmers and
technical staff in producer
organisations in Mexico and Nicaragua
(2002-2004)
-
Member of the IFOAM international reference group for the February 2002 conference on “Harmonisation and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture”.
-
Participated in the HDRA workshop on “Facilitating the Inclusion of the Resource-poor in Organic Production and Trade”.
-
Participated at the International Coffee Organisation (ICO) round table on “Coffee produced by organic farming methods” (May 2000).
