Developing a Fairtrade rice supply chain from Myanmar: achievements, challenges, lessons

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jfairtrade.2.2.0024
• Published date: 01 June 2021
• Date: 01 June 2021
• Pages: 24-28
• Author: George Williams
• Subject Matter: rice,paddy,Myanmar,Burma,farmers,small producers,smallholders,Fairtrade,Fair Trade

24

Developing a Fairtrade rice supply chain from Myanmar:

achievements, challenges, lessons

George Williams

George Williams worked at Traidcraft Exchange from 2010 until 2021. From 2018 he was the

organisation’s Impact and Learning Manager. In this role he worked closely with Traidcraft Exchange’s

programme teams in South Asia and Africa, documenting achievements, approaches and lessons learnt

from their work with small-scale producers and workers.

Abstract

Traidcraft Exchange and its sister business Traidcraft plc have been developing Fair Trade

supply chains for over three decades. As core certified ‘Fairtrade’ products have become

mainstream in UK markets since the late 1990s, Traidcraft Exchange has focused energies

on bringing innovative supply chains and small-producer organisations into the wider Fair

Trade system. The case study presented here is of rice sourced from smallholder farmers in

Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region: the world’s first Fairtrade product from Myanmar. The case

study illustrates how Traidcraft Exchange’s explicit focus on small producers and innovating

new supply chains from ‘left behind’ communities can work in practice. It explains challenges

faced at both the supplier and market end. It seeks to show how broader programmatic

aims to strengthen small producer skills and organisational capacity to engage with trade on

fairer terms can mitigate risks associated with export trade to the challenging UK market.

Keywords: rice; paddy; Myanmar; Burma; farmers; small producers; smallholders; Fairtrade;

Fair Trade

Introduction

Traidcraft Exchange and its sister business Traidcraft plc have been developing Fair Trade supply chains for over

three decades. As documented in a previous volume of the Journal of Fair Trade (Williams, 2020), as core

certified ‘Fairtrade’ products such as coffee, cocoa, tea and bananas have become mainstream in UK markets

since the late 1990s, Traidcraft Exchange has focused energies on bringing new supply chains and small-

producer organisations into the wider Fair Trade system, including from underrepresented communities. This

has included working with Fairtrade certification (as overseen by Fairtrade International), but also with other

schemes and models as appropriate.1 This case study focuses on the development of a rice supply chain with

smallholder farmers in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region. It illustrates how Traidcraft Exchange’s explicit focus on

small producers and innovating new supply chains from ‘left behind’ communities can work in practice. It

explains challenges faced at both the supplier and market end. It seeks to show how broader programmatic

aims to strengthen small producer skills and organisational capacity to engage with trade on fairer terms can

work to counter-balance risks faced in the export of Fairtrade products to challenging markets. Lessons learnt

on leveraging strategic opportunities available in the broader trade context, and on the value of collaboration

between diverse actors, may be of relevance to other actors exploring opportunities in ‘atypical Fair Trade’.

1  Throughout the article, ‘Fair Trade’ is used to refer to the wider movement seeking to make trade fairer. ‘Fairtrade’ is used to refer to the certication 

scheme overseen by Fairtrade International, which constitutes one part of this wider movement.