Rice
For many people around the world, rice is the most essential staple food. To ensure long-term procurement, we support projects in India and Thailand for sustainable rice cultivation.
Saving water in organic cultivation
All the Asian rice for our own-label brands now comes from fair trade. Together with our subsidiary Reismühle Nutrex, however, we are going one step further: In 2010, we started planning an ambitious project with Helvetas, which we have been implementing in India and Thailand since 2011. With the support of Helvetas, the farmers are switching the rice fields to organic production while at the same time using innovative methods to reduce water consumption. Also reducing greenhouse gases through the use of alternative cultivation techniques is a key aspect of the project, as wet rice-growing creates a lot of methane. With this organic fairtrade rice, the rice farmers achieve a higher income (Action No. 13 in German).
Today, we source almost our entire Organic Fairtrade range of basmati and jasmine rice from the two projects. The farming families involved in production benefit from a significantly higher margin and thus higher incomes. Additionally, there are the ecological benefits of organic production, water savings, and social investments, which can be made thanks to the Fairtrade Premium (Fact No. 114 in German).
Living income from rice
The overriding aim is to reduce poverty among small-scale farmers by assuring them of a long-term, secure income. This will be achieved through yield improvements (System of Rice Intensification), minimum prices and Fairtrade premiums as well as greater self sufficiency. The farming families also grow pulses and vegetables and sell them at the local market. Furthermore, rice is part of our strategy for living income and wages. The first steps have already been taken. We have commissioned and financed Fairtrade International to calculate the Living Income Reference Price (LIRP) for rice from Thailand and India.
Since 2022, we have been focusing on the landscape approach in the project. The landscape approach involves a holistic commitment within a project region. Challenges of an area are analysed holistically and measures beyond rice cultivation are implemented. This aims to enhance the quality of life for the people living in the cultivation area while simultaneously protecting nature and promoting biodiversity.
Transparent value chain
The local rice mills in Thailand and India have been upgraded for sustainable processing. Reismühle Nutrex imports rice directly from these mills, thereby ensuring a fully transparent value chain. We launched the first Fairtrade Perfume Rice from the project in Thailand under Coop Naturaplan. Since 2013, both the Fairtrade Perfume rice from Thailand and the Basmati rice from India have been available with organic certification.