German Retailers Working Group at the Green Week: Panel on living wages and income

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) was represented at the Green Week in mid-January with the slogan #ichwillfair. The Green Week is an international trade fair for food, agriculture and horticulture and took place for the 88th time in Berlin in January 2024. BMZ's focus was on promoting sustainable, fair supply chains and living incomes and wages for producers in partner countries.

In this context, the German Retailers Working Group on Living Income and Living Wages participated on the 19th of January with a panel on the topic "Together for Living Wages". BMZ was represented by State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth, the German Retailers Working Group and the joint banana project were represented by Stephan Jermendy from ALDI SOUTH. Together with Victor Prada, Secretary of the World Banana Forum (FAO), they discussed the relevance of living wages and incomes in the context of human rights due diligence. The discussion also focussed on the role of retailers in contributing to the promotion of living wages and incomes especially through responsible purchasing practices.

Stephan Jermendy highlighted that the trusting cooperation within the Working Group plays an important role in this, as the transformation can only succeed together. To increase the Group's leverage, cooperation at European level shall be further strengthened in future. The German Ministry supports sector initiatives like the Retailers Working Group. To create a level playing field for companies, BMZ underlines the need for legal regulations at German and European level. 

During the panel discussion, Victor Prada also emphasised the relevance of exchanging in an international dialogue format such as the World Banana Forum, as changes can only have a lasting effect if all actors in the supply chain are involved. In this context, Emerson Aguirre from the Colombian producers' association AUGURA also contributed with a video message. He emphasised the commitment of banana producers' to sustainability, but also stressed that this involves a great amount of effort and costs and must be supported by all players in the supply chain.