1. The experience of Fair Trade Procurement for the Municipality of Rome
Paolo Agostini, Municipality of Rome
Fair Procura Conference – Bruxelles 19 April 2007

2. Procurement for the school canteens
Contracts :
students (3-14 years old) involved
over 100 million euro for the yearly amount (like the turnover of a main italian food company)
weight of the criteria for the contract awarding: 51% for the price, 49% for the project proposed to follow the specification

3. Procurement for the school canteens
Priorities for the specification of the contracts:
food quality and students safety
support to the economical sectors involved in the sustainable development like organic products and fairtrade; such sectors are disadvantage by the global market logic focused on profits
New Italian regulation for the public purchasing approved in april 2006: economical advantage subordinated to social and enviromental considerations and to the promotion of the sustainable development

4. Fairtrade products for 2004-07
Weekly consumption: bananas and chocolats (both also organic) offered by the catering companies to reach the premium incentives
3,3 million euro for the yearly fairtrade value (3% of the total value of the contracts)
Impacts on fairtrade:
increase of 10% for the fairtrade bananas quota on the total italian organic market
new worldshops in Rome and general increase of the fairtrade organization activities
improvement of the price for the producers of banana, cacao and sugar

5. Other incentives for the sustainable development
70% of products are organic (of which 15% are also fairtrade)
preference to companies focused 100% on organic products
meat from slow growth animals
reduction in the plastic use (increase of ceramics)
differentiated waste disposal
reduction of noise in the canteen
recovery of not used food

6. The new contract for 2007-2012 145.000 meals/day
nearly 140 million euro for the yearly amount
improvements in the support to the sustainable development in terms of promotion of organizations and products attentive to social and enviromental aspects
confirmation of the greatest attention to the food safety

7. The new contract: fairtrade growth
fairtrade products obligatory (not more optional)
increase of the consumption: bananas/ week, larger weight of chocolate for older students (nearly kg/week of chocolate)
new biscuits ( packages/week) composed with 30% of fairtrade ingredients (sugar, cacao, honey, tapioca)
around 30 million euro for the fairtrade total amount (5 years), corresponding to 4,3% of the total value of the contract

8. The new contract: other improvements
support to the social cooperatives employing disadvantaged people
plastic elimination; use of crockery to be recycled or made with biodegradable materials. Detergents with low enviromental impact.
support to the integration of immigrants: montly day with ethnic menu of the most important origin countries
new concept of guaranteed freshness for meat and some fruit and vegetables: aim to improve quality and to develope the local production