Wholesum continues lead role in Fair Trade effort

In 2023, Nogales, AZ-based Wholesum generated more than $1.7 million from Fair Trade Certified sales, which was contributed to community funds managed by its workers in Mexico and Arizona. Since the company became Fair Trade Certified in 2012, the total contributions have topped $10 million.

Joanna Jaramillo, Wholesum’s market manager, told OPN Connect that the company’s partnership with Fair Trade USA, a pioneering fair-trade certifier, was a natural evolution of Wholesum’s journey during its long history, which began in the late 1920s. Miguel Cristanes Gatzionis, who migrated from Greece to the Mexican state of Sinaloa, is credited with being the first grower to plant tomato seeds. After graduating from the University of California at Davis in the 1960s, Theojary Crisantes came back to the farm with the idea of creating a more noble food production system. In the 1980s, the company started experimenting with organic growing methods and, in 1992, it received its first organic certification for tomatoes and bell peppers.

Fair Trade Certified catches on

In the early 2000s, Fair Trade Certified began to take hold, first making inroads in the coffee and tea industries and eventually expanding to bananas and other fresh produce products. In 2012, Wholesum obtained Fair Trade Certification for two of its farms in Mexico. And in 2016, the Wholesum farming operation in Arizona earned the certificate, making it the first Fair Trade Certified farm in the United States.

According to Jaramillo, 100% of Wholesum’s production is organic today and all of its company-owned farming operations are Fair Trade Certified. “It fluctuates, but about 50-60% of our sales are under the Fair Trade label,” she said, adding that the percentage is only limited by the number of buyers willing to make the purchase.

The Fair Trade Certified framework requires a producer to follow specific standards related to the ethical treatment of its workers and to be good stewards of the land. The Fair Trade USA mission statement describes it best. In part, it reads: the “Fair Trade Certified seal on a product signifies that it was made according to rigorous fair trade standards that promote sustainable livelihoods and safe working conditions, protection of the environment and strong, transparent supply chains.”

The certification requires continual improvement by the farm, and it also involves the buyer paying a premium for the product with the Fair Trade Certified mark to create a fund for workers. Those dollars collected—$10 million by Wholesum over 11 years—are directly funneled to a farmworker-controlled Fair Trade Committee, one for each farming entity. There is a committee for Wholesum’s farmworkers in Mexico, as well as one for those at its Arizona farm.

Uplifting communities

Jaramillo noted that the committees do a needs assessment and determine where those funds should be spent each year. “As you would imagine, there are different needs in Mexico than there are in Arizona,” she said.

In the early days of the community fund established in Mexico, Jaramillo said educational efforts topped the needs list and they are still important today. She revealed that, in Mexico, many of the workers live in the same community (where they work) and they choose to use the money on projects that benefit the entire community. “Early on, the committee determined that access to education was extremely important for the children in the community,” she said. “The first project was the purchasing of a school bus to take kids to the high school. There are now multiple buses taking kids to school from kindergarten through high school.”

In recent years, the committee has turned its attention toward health issues and has helped create a preventative health care clinic to provide services for the community. She noted that many people only seek medical care when they have an emergency.

Jaramillo added that Wholesum’s involvement doesn’t end with the delivery of the Fair Trade Certified funds. She said th

e company believes it has a “shared responsibility,” and it also contributes company funds for the community projects. One recent project involved building a kitchen at one of the local schools to make sure that students are properly fed. Wholesum directly contributed to that project, which had a relatively high price tag.

In Arizona, Jaramillo pointed out, the farmworker community is more spread out, so one of the committee’s projects was the development of a shuttle bus system to help the workers get to work without spending their own money on transportation.

“That’s the beauty of the program,” Jaramillo said. “It is controlled by workers and they can make a difference where there is a need.”

In fact, she said the impact of the Fair Trade Certified program goes well beyond the funds generated through the sales. “When you see the collective impact it has on the community, there is a 10-fold return,” she said. “It is so much greater than the dollars collected.”

Retail support

Jaramillo said there is good support in the retail community and especially among the organic-focused retailers that Wholesum works with. “Whole Foods [Market] has been a great supporter since the beginning of our involvement,” she said. “And Sprouts [Farmers Market] has also been very supportive. There are also other large retailers that have tried on specific crops.”

She added that Walmart is also an active supporter of the Fair Trade Certified program through its produce purchases from Wholesum.

Jaramillo reported that a recent survey by Fair Trade USA found that 65% of consumers recognize what the certification means. In fact, the survey revealed that 55% of millennials indicate they would pay more for a Fair Trade Certified item, meaning that it is a positive selling point for both retailers and producers.