IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative accelerates and up scales sustainable trade by building impact oriented coalitions of front running companies, civil society organizations, governments and other stakeholders. By convening public & private interests, strengths, and knowledge, the 18 IDH programs sustainably transform commodity markets to create large scale improvements in the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of small scale farmers, reduce negative environmental impact, and support local value creation in developing countries - making sustainable production and consumption the norm.
IDH Programs in Vietnam Vietnam has become the top producer of pepper, 2 nd top-most producer of coffee, 3 rd producer of aquaculture products and 5 th producer of tea globally. For these reasons, in January 2012, Vietnam became the first country where IDH established a presence. In line with our role of convening and accelerating sustainable production, since 2011 IDH has been an active member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Vietnam Task Force, playing an active role especially in coffee, tea and access to finance. The strong cooperation of IDH with international and national players has led to the development and implementation of 5 programs: Aquaculture, Cocoa, Coffee, Spices, and Tea. Aquaculture The IDH Aquaculture Program aims to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices by leveraging retail and trade demand, as well as supporting responsible farming practices to increase availability of responsibly farmed seafood. The program drives change in the sector by aligning international (and domestic) demand and supply for environmentally and socially responsibly farmed seafood. In collaboration with the Vietnamese government, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and WWF, in 2012 IDH and 7 European traders funded and co-financed the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Accelerator with the target of upgrading 100,000 tons of pangasius to ASC compliance by 2013. With support from this program, the first ever ASC certified pangasius appeared on the European shelves in September 2012. An ambitious shrimp program expected to benefit thousands of farmers has recently started and was officially launched in April 2013. IDH accelerates and up-scales sustainable trade by building impact oriented coalitions of front running companies, civil society organizations, governments and other stakeholders.www.idhsustainabletrade.com
Cocoa IDH plays a key role in involving and aligning the cocoa industry around a productivity package, which emphasizes good agricultural practices and last-mile delivery mechanisms to facilitate farmer access to inputs such as fertilizer, crop protection, improved planting materials and agro-financing to improve livelihoods of cocoa farmers and solve social and environmental sustainability. The main aim of the IDH Cocoa Program is transforming cocoa farming into a business that improves the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and reduces environmental impact. Upgrading farmers entrepreneurial skills, enhancing productivity and improving quality of their products, will derive more revenue from cocoa farms. Although cocoa production in Vietnam is still limited, multinationals like Mars and Cargill have eyed Vietnam as a potential top producer for fermented cocoa. For this reason in 2012, they joined IDH, the Dutch Government, Rabobank Foundation, and the Vietnamese Government to launch a public-private partnership aimed at improving productivity and quality of key policies to allow for responsible development of the sector. Coffee The Sustainable Coffee Program (SCP) targets mainstream up-scaling of sustainable coffee production and acts as a global convener of stakeholders (representing 30% of global coffee demand). By supporting the creation of national sector strategies in focus countries and stimulating impact-oriented field-level projects, the SCP creates global synergies that bring sustainability in coffee to a mainstream level, creating scale advantages that will increase cost efficiency and impact. The SCP is chaired and co-financed by IDH and 4 major coffee roasters (Nestlé, Mondelēz International, D. E. Master Blender 1753, and Tchibo) together with the support of the European Coffee Federation (ECF), whose membership represents an annual import volume of over 40 million bags. The SCP Steering Committee visited Vietnam in September 2012 and launched the program with key coffee traders and government authorities. The visit culminated in a meeting with H. E. Minister Dr. Cao Duc Phat who appreciated the program s innovative public-private approach. The program is implemented under the coordination of SNV. To support an effective enabling policy framework in the coffee sector, the SCP established cooperation with IPSARD to develop an innovative National Strategy Action Plan for coffee, and to act at the SCP Institutional Coordinator. Currently, projects either approved or in the pipeline are expected to lead to the training of more than 10,000 coffee farmers, and many more will be trained through projects that are currently being solicited.
Spices The Sustainable Spices Initiative (SSI), powered by IDH, brings together leading international companies and NGOs aiming to sustainably transform the mainstream spices sector. The members are committed to have 20% of all pepper imported in the EU produced sustainably and 10% of the volumes of 3 other spices sustainably produced by 2015. Through the SSI funded by IDH and leading spice processors and brands Local Interpretation Guidelines (LIGs) to facilitate Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification of Vietnamese pepper have been developed. At the same time, 2 producer support projects co-financed by 2 leading Dutch Spice processors have been approved and are undergoing implementation. These initial projects are expected to upgrade almost 2% of European pepper imports. Discussion is also ongoing to explore the potential to establish a sustainable spice platform for Vietnam, a multi-stakeholder discussion forum to reach consensus on the sustainability needs of the sector and to align efforts aimed at fulfilling those needs. Tea The Tea Program is a consortium of the largest tea packers in Europe and Asia, and the most important certifiers and NGOs in the sector. The program promotes sustainable tea production in Africa and Asia, and sustainable procurement in Western Europe and Asia, attributing first-hand experience with up-scaling of both certification training and a farmer field school extension model. Responding to the requests of Unilever and the Vietnam Tea Association, and in alignment with the sustainable tea agenda of MARD, a program aimed at upscaling sustainable tea production is currently being undertaken under the umbrella of the WEF Tea Taskforce. As part of such a program, IDH and Unilever are currently seeking expression of interest from implementing organizations to train more than 20,000 tea farmers and produce 30,000tons of sustainably grown tea by 2015.
IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative By convening public & private interests, strengths, and knowledge, the 18 IDH programs sustainably transform commodity markets to create large scale improvements in the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of small scale farmers, reduce negative environmental impact, and support local value creation in developing countries - making sustainable production and consumption the norm. Recently conducted impact studies have shown that our programs deliver the intended sustainability benefits at scale: Improved source of livelihood for over 700,000 farmers in cotton, tea and cocoa Significant increase in the global market share of sustainable products: tea and cocoa are well on their way to becoming mainstream. Triggered large scale private investments, in Cocoa half of the investments in sustainable cocoa were private. Flanking and additional activities are necessary to address more complex issues such as child labor and gender inequality IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative is: A pioneer developing innovative strategies for supply chain models that address tough global social & environmental challenges. A program developer driving and monitoring joint implementation of 18 sector programs in over 50 countries, involving over 350 civil society organizations, governmental bodies, SMEs and multinationals. An investor with a co-funding grant of 130 million from Dutch, Swiss and Danish government leveraging over 500 million private investments. An accelerator that generates sustainable impact on a large scale. A business developer combining sustainable demand and supply with sharing lessons learned and best practices to support sustainable market transformationg