Looking back at the International Green Week in Berlin

An article by Leonard Schäfer

From the 20.-29.01.2023, the International Green Week in Berlin offered 300,000 visitors a diverse programme on topics of the food industry, agriculture, and horticulture. Our Instagram account #ichwillfair and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development focused on African Food in their joint exhibition area and informed the numerous visitors about opportunities of sustainable business.  

Those who have not previously heard about the “Green Week” might assume that the 180,000qm area revolve around sustainability. However, already the first meters of the most important international trade fair on food industry, agriculture, and horticulture tell a different story. The first “Green Week” started in 1926 as a trade fair for the agricultural industry and today primarily addresses consumers. 1400 exhibitors offered their products this year and especially the “World Tour” attracted the interest of many visitors. Very slowly, people pushed past food and other products from a total of 60 countries; there were moose burgers from Sweden or pastéis de nata from Portugal to explore and try, for example.  

The INA at the IGW 

The trade fair offers one thing above all: consumption. All the more important that many inquiring faces stood in front of the exhibition area of the INA and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development – nothing to buy here. Instead, there was a lot to discover and taste - insects, for instance, which can serve as potential food source for the future and offer resource-saving animal protein. “Tastes like chips”, a visitor concludes after tentatively trying a grasshopper. He smiles and, in passing by, takes another handful. 

Holding his daughter by the hand, he moves to the next stall. Here, they can try cocoa beens, fresh and untreated. His daughter pulls a face and spits out the bean. Much to bitter. But the 6-year-old girl found the composition of the cocoa bean “very exciting”. “I never thought about where chocolate actually comes from.” “Me neither”, her father agrees.  

Raising awareness for the region of origin 

The two continued their exploration -- they had missed one stall in particular, on their way from cocoa tree to chocolate in the supermarket. Above a wooden tree, a photo shows a family from the Côte d’Ivoire. Next to it, the average income of a family working in the cocoa sector is displayed: 172 Euros. The visitors are tasked with managing this monthly income. By scanning the barcode of different items, basic needs can be “bought”. For this, the average prices per month on the ground were calculated for a family with five children. When the budget is reached, the cash register flashes red. If a varied diet is prioritized, money will not suffice for a visit to the doctor or medication. Mobility or internet access are out of the budget, even electricity can only be afforded by a few who had decided to only scan rice and plantains as food items.  

172 Euros is the calculated average income, 478 Euros would be the fair income that our living wages and living income team had calculated for a family in Côte d’Ivoire. More than 300 Euros are missing to comply with the threshold that was determined in the UN Convention on Human Rights of 1948: Every person has the right to a standard of living adequate to their health and well-being of themselves and their family. “But why is this my concern?”, one visitor asks.  

At the stall across „Brot für die Welt“ (Bread for the World) is distributing free chocolate that was produced under fair conditions. I get one and show it to visitors. Of conventionally produced chocolate bars, only 8 cents of every euro go to the producers. If consumers decide to buy chocolate produced under fair conditions, the smallholder farmers are paid much better. But of course, consumers have to consume actively and consciously. How can they, in a supermarket filled with labels, logos, and different names?  

„It should generally not be allowed to buy products that are produced under conditions that violate human rights”, she says. We talk about the supply chain due diligence law. At least, I showed her the stall of “Angelique’s Finest”, a coffee produced in Ruanda under fair conditions and, up until packaging, the entire value creation takes place on site. This way, all those involved are remunerated much better. At Angelique’s Finest, these are only women, because women suffer particularly under the poor working conditions in the conventional coffee sector, even though they perform a majority of the work.

In conclusion, the presence of the INA and the Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation at the Green Week was a success and the exciting discussions on the BMZ stage on the first weekend of the fair played a major role in bringing our issues to the attention of consumers, politicians and civil society.