Social Awareness
Quality Business & Social Awarenes
(socially responsible corporate philosophy)Quality First International sources from state of the art high--tech producers to small enterprises in grass roots village settings. Each product is evaluated for efficacy, quality, safety, environmental impact, benefits and uses. Our focus on research insures that we know the products we offer.
While we support the core principle of “holistic” and “natural trading”, we choose principals and partners that adhere to international market set of standards and at the same time, ethically produced and traded. We believe that even small entities are capable of competing in international trade and that:
To be socially responsible is not to simply paying more, but to engage them as equal partners, respect their pride and be able to be competitive in quality and service.CASE EXAMPLE: VIRGIN OIL DE COCO-CRÈME®
(Sumatra Indonesia and Southern Thailand)Quality First International is dedicated to truly environmentally friendly products. We believe that the Virgin oil de Coco Crème® offers a perfect model for this objective.
Environmental Issues:
We believe that environmental concerns should be addressed with quality tools like ISO, HACCP and
GMP which have a more direct relationship with how a growing / manufacturing plant conducts
operations. For example, in manufacturing Virgin oil de Coco Crème® :
- coconut water by-products (the “waste” in the system) are used in irrigating the coconut farm.
- All parts of the coconut are used including the shell.
- Coconut planting is part of the program to continually renew and increase the coconut stands.
- No pesticides or herbicides are used. Organic certification is part of our commitments.
DEVELOPMENT ISSUES: 3 KEY FACETS.
Quality First International through our producers and partners, support development, not just
income supports.
- The people. Oil production is a high tech facility or a derivative (as in the case of Sumatra and southern Thailand respectively) requiring skilled and professional people (as opposed to low tech and low paying jobs). RESULT: Locally trained expertise increases the employment standard of the area involved and creates a market for more local investment in education.
- The local produce. The global economy demands better and improved products in virtually every industry including the produce of third world and emerging industrial countries. This type of virgin coconut oil – virgin oil de coco-crème® is fully capable of competing with oil products of technologically advanced nations in the western world. RESULT: Increased opportunities for international marketing.
- Technology transfer. International expertise and technology was used extensively in the early stages of production and local expertise was gradually cultivated to take over these roles as time went on. RESULT: Local expertise is raised beyond subsistence skills.
CASE EXAMPLE: AFRICAN SHEA BUTTERS
(Togo and Ghana in West Africa)We work with a company that employs 9 people to manage the entire cooperatives; QA of the product, administration, logistics, and marketing. This company works with independent “crushers”, the majority of them women. They have about 500 + adult women independently gathering nuts and process it by themselves. These independent “crushers” submit their produce to the main plant.
The objective of the project is basically to alleviate poverty and to empower these women to improve their lives. These are achieved by:
- Paying the product at a fair price i.e. more than what their local government standard.
- Improve ancient technologies by teaching new production efficiencies.
- Ready market for their produce. Virtually direct access from overseas to you without .
ETHICAL TRADE
We reject the platform of fair trade organizations. We believe in some cases that our
organization – and its practices, is better suited for some development projects such as these.
Please take a look at PHILOPSOPHY 1 – True Fair Trade for the background on this stand.
SCRP PARTNERSHIPS:
(social corporate responsibility partnership)
In some cases, there are natural products that just cannot be done in village-low tech settings.
Virgin coconut oil for uses other than baking and frying being one of them. We source and partner
with principals that are high-tech producers instead of traditional fair trade to farmers. Examples
of these are: Virgin oil de Coco-Crème®, MANGO BUTTER and MCT. These companies do a
typical “SRCP™” – Socially Responsible Corporation philosophy i.e. extending help to
establishing health clinics, schools, and recreation centers. This simple act of
responsibility enhances livelihood of workers and farmers and the consumer benefits from a
better product. This is win – win.
COMMUNITY & RURAL EXTENSION SERVICES
The essence of quality business should be in day to day partnerships. With global oriented business,
it is of prime consideration to respect way of life and to receive proper training in order to
generate a system that in essence should be applied to day to day life and day to day operation.
This is made possible by training, education, and extended the relationship to the community.
QFI’s typical rural extension services:
- Quality control
- Export documentation
- Book keeping
- Training quality standard
- Group autonomy
- Commercial trade partnership
- Administration
- Open- as the situation dictates