Earthoil achieves Fair for Life status

Treatt subsidiary Earthoil has been awarded Fair for Life status for its Indian mint growing facility. Fair for Life is a brand neutral third party certification programme for social accountability and fair trade in agricultural, manufacturing and trading operations and Earthoil’s award has be achieved through the IMO Social and Fair Trade Certification programme.

“It’s the first ethically traded certified oil,” says Campbell Walter, sales and marketing director, Earthoil. “We’re delighted to be awarded Fair for Life status. It’s a tangible acknowledgement of our dedication to ethical trading and practices. At Earthoil, we firmly believe that ethical trade and organic farming practices are inextricably linked. By offering our growers better trading conditions, we are contributing to sustainable development and securing the rights of producers, workers and their communities in developing countries.”

The company says it has received increasing interest and requests for fair trade materials, “particularly from the US where they see it as a lot less complex than organic,” says Hugo Bovill, md of Treatt. People’s consciences are being pricked and even in this climate they are still prepared to pay a premium, though in this case we have cut out the middle man, which means there is no premium and more money is going back to the producer.”

Earthoil is a wholly owned subsidiary of Treatt and supplies to the cosmetics industry as well as the organic consumer goods sector.

Read more about Earthoil and fair trade in the May issue of SPC.