About us

Cooperating to pursue their common goal

The Partnership for Sustainable Orange Juice (PANAO) has set itself the goal of responding to these challenges. German and Brazilian stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, trade unions and the public sector are therefore working together to advance social justice, occupational health and safety and environmental protection in orange juice production in Brazil.

Decent living and working conditions for workers and smallholders and effective measures to protect the environment cannot ultimately be achieved with isolated solutions; the stakeholders along the value creation chain must all work together to ensure that sustainably produced orange juice becomes the norm.

PANAO provides a framework within which stakeholders in Brazil, Germany and the EU can take coordinated action; it pools knowledge and resources and promotes dialogue between stakeholders based on the principle that only equitable cooperation can bring about the required success.

Concrete activities

Concrete activities for a sustainable orange juice market

An important factor in establishing decent working and living conditions is ensuring that workers are able to earn a living wage or income for themselves and their families through their work. With this in mind, PANAO develops joint approaches that are organised into four fields of action.

  • Sustainable procurement practices

    • An analysis of the orange juice supply chain is to be performed to identify where action must be taken and bring greater transparency to the supply chain.

    • Members will develop a concept for sustainable procurement practices for bottlers and food retailers.

  • Decent working conditions

    • PANAO records existing working conditions and wage levels, and defines possibilities for improvement as well as target figures.

    • Living wages and incomes are determined, and the discrepancy between these and current wages and incomes is calculated.

    • The partners will develop targeted improvement measures and implement them in selected pilot businesses.

  • Strong worker representations

    • Workers and their representations in Brazil are to be further strengthened.

    • PANAO works to promote social dialogue by supporting the development of a dialogue structure to facilitate negotiation processes between workers and employers.

  • Political conditions

    • Political conditions in both the producing and the consuming countries are to be improved.

    • PANAO conducts a dialogue with partners at the German, European and Brazilian level, thereby shaping political developments.

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