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Sri Lanka gloves maker in 'fair trade' deal with farmers
June 23, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lankan rubber gloves manufacturer Dipped Products said it has launched a 'fair trade' initiative to help small farmers from whom it buys latex.
It said its 'Firstlight' programme pays a fair price for rubber latex direct to farmers and offers them technical assistance, provides materials and implements and helps in improving their communities.
A company statement said the initiative benefits some five hundred smallholder farmers and their families and accounts for 30 per cent of the total latex needs of the gloves manufacturing unit of the Hayleys Group.
Under Firstlight, Dipped Products guarantees Sri Lankan rubber smallholders a price indexed to RSS1 (ribbed smoked sheet), the highest grade of the most consumed form of raw rubber, for their field latex.
It also contributes half a US cent (about 58 Sri Lankan cents at current exchange rates) for every pair of gloves sold with the Firstlight endorsement.
The monies are used by the Firstlight Foundation on projects that empower smallholders in their work and day-to-day lives, the statement said.
Dipped Products currently consumes six percent of Sri Lanka’s rubber production, and the group’s requirements for manufacturing in Sri Lanka mainly come from 3,000 smallholder farmers, most of them owning less than two hectares.
"Our objective is to ultimately bring 100 per cent of the latex bought from smallholders under the Firstlight programme," Dipped Products managing director J A G Anandarajah said.
"In its own way, Firstlight makes it viable for small farmers to earn a living from rubber, and contributes to another of our larger goals, the sustainable development of land under rubber cultivation."
The programme has already helped several smallholder communities by educating farmers to maximize their income by disseminating best practices in planting, field management and harvesting.
It also helps by providing implements and input material to protect and augment crops.
"Our relationship with these smallholder farmers goes back 30 years to 1979, when Dipped Products, then a fledgling company, set up its own centrifuging unit and started buying field latex," Anandarajah recalled.
Firstlight has provided special collection cups and high quality tapping knives and materials for plant nurseries.
Dipped Products said it has a five percent share of the world market for non-medical rubber gloves.
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