English Articles

At the last General Meeting of the Fair Rubber Association at the end of April 2022, members confirmed Chairman David Löw Beer in office for another two years. Felix Jahn, CSR officer at bicycle tire manufacturer Schwalbe, was also elected as a new member of the board. He has also taken over the position of […]

Online retailer Amazon has recognized Fair Rubber as a trusted seal for sustainable rubber: Customers can now find products with the Fair Rubber logo more easily through Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly program on the online marketplace. It is now also possible to search for Fair Rubber items in individual product categories. Alternatively, shoppers can get

Thailand is the largest rubber producer in the world. Fair Rubber e.V. has two smaller supplier partners there, followed by a third in the Surat Thani region at the beginning of 2022. In May, for the first time after the withdrawal of the Corona restrictions, a delegation of the Fair Rubber Association traveled to the

15 years ago I went on my first trip to try and find a rubber producer willing to supply a few 100 kg of rubber under ‘Fair Trade’ conditions for the foot/soccer balls I was trying to sell at the time. At the end of 2020, the members of the Fair Rubber Association (FRA), which

The FRA introduced its first stand alone criteria document in 2018 (before that it had relied on other related criteria sets). After three years of experience in all countries where we have supplier partners, the criteria document has been revised: No basics needed to be changed – but the explanations of which regulations apply to

The Global Platform for Sustain-able Natural Rubber, originally founded in October 2018, has recently published a document with the title ‘GPSNR Desired State’: “The Global Platform for Sustain-able Natural Rubber (GPSNR) is committed to creating a sustain-able global natural rubber value chain by ensuring high standards in the following areas: Environmental, Social, Economic.”The document then

Schwalbe, the world’s premier brand of bicycle tyres, has joined the Fair Rubber Association (FRA) and produces the world’s first Fairly Traded tyres: The‘Marathon E-plus’ for e-bikes. Second in line: “The tyre for cargo bikes ‘Pick-Up’easily gets any load of up to 300 kg rolling”. The launch fell victim to Covid, as the bicycle fair

Despite Covid travel restrictions it was possible to welcome a new supplier partner into the Fair Trade system of the Fair Rubber Association: 44 small rubber farmers in the Hat Yai region (Thailand), who supply to a local processor, registered their association as “KLONG POM PHATTHANA 95”. The group consists of men and women, aged

You are not alone if you are fed up with all the devastating news surrounding the Covid pandemic and its impact. The Fair Rubber Association (FRA) and its work has not been spared either: Supply chains have shut down because factories had to close when workers became infected, travel became difficult to impossible for groups

The decision on how to spend Fair Trade premium payments rests with the primary producers. In the case of plantations, a representative ‘joint body’ of plantation workers decides. And over the years, they have come up with some surprising decisions. Two examples show the breadth of usage – and their implications:Fifty-two year old S. V.