Updates announced to the FairWild trading and labelling rules
February 2021 - FairWild are excited to announce some additions and updates to our trading rules, labelling rules and derogations policy that will help to expand the number of situations in which businesses can use the FairWild label on their products.
The main changes are:
Microenterprises and herbalists (businesses with an annual turnover of less than EUR 75,000) can register with FairWild as a new category of business (“Microenterprise”), for a nominal registration fee of 50 EUR. If a Microenterprises applies to label finished products as FairWild, they will be exempt from turnover fees.
Wild-sourced ingredients from Threatened species (based on IUCN Global Red List – categories CR, EN, VU) must be FairWild certified to be used in FairWild labelled products.
Licensees will be able to request an exceptional permit to allow labelling of products with a combination of cultivated and FairWild versions of the same ingredient, subject to a minimum 50% of FairWild quality of the ingredient in the finished product
The new versions of the trading rules, labelling rules and derogations policy will be made public on the FairWild website on 15 February 2021, and will be implemented from that date.
Additional minor updates and clarifications in the revised rules include:
Clarification added to the labelling rules that the composition of the final product is what should be used to calculate ingredients for labelling purposes.
Clarification added to the labelling rules that excipients should be included in the calculation of percentage of FairWild ingredients in final products.
Clarification added to the labelling rules that use of the FairWild label on multi-packs, gift packs, or similar must still submit package designs to FairWild for approval. Unless all items in a multi-pack are classed as “Certified FairWild product”, no reference may be made to FairWild in a prominent position or in the multi-pack name.
Addition to the labelling rules of UEBT - Ethical BioTrade as a scheme recognised to meet the requirements for composite products.
Clarification added to the trading rules that registered Licensees may make general statements about purchase of FairWild ingredients (i.e. not in connection to use of FairWild in specific products). If specific ingredients are mentioned, the percentage of FairWild certified quality as a proportion of the total of that ingredient purchased by a company must be stated. E.g. “30% of the rosehips we buy are FairWild certified”.
Clarification in the trading and labelling rules of permitted uses of the FairWild logo and wordmark by resellers and marketers.
You can view the new versions of the relevant documents here:
We look forward to working with current and prospective FairWild businesses to implement these changes, and welcome any feedback or queries via email to secretariat@fairwild.org.