Grovaz (Interview Transcript)

Petunisia's confectionery company started with humble beginnings 10 years ago off the back of the nation's special strain of corn. Looking ahead to Australian/Malaysian expansion, one lucky team secured this exclusive interview with a company VP, providing some key insights into the workings of Grovaz.

Hello! Thank you for agreeing to meet and discuss the workplace of Grovaz. We are honoured that you would grant us this exclusive access.

Welcome! Thank you for your generous offer.

Thank you. Shall we make a start?

Yes, let's!

Ok. So tell me, after ten years of operations how big is Grovaz?

We're employ about 600 staff. All employees are employed full-time under Petunisian labour laws. We take great pride in being a large organisation free from unionism.

You make reference to Petunisian labour laws, can you tell us what some of those conditions are?

We pay the average wage for Petunisian workers for the position so the average wages based on Government figures is the equivalent to about AU$50,000/RM30,000 p.a. Workers have access to two days of annual leave and two days of personal or sick leave each year.Employees work shifts of 12 hours with a half hour break.We also often have overtime.

Do your workers receive annual wage increases?

Oh yes. The economy has been relatively stable, so wages growth is probably less than 1%

What's the split of men/women/intersex that work at Grovaz?

Just roughly at the top of my head, about 75% of our employees are women

Can you tell us about the employment split of high to low income employees?

What do you mean? Can you ask that in another way?

Well, are the majority of your employees low income employees?

I'm sorry, but I find that line of questioning are little offensive. We hire the best people available for the role based on their merits.

My apologies, I didn't mean to cause offense. You made a comment earlier that the company is proud of its union-free status. Can you tell me who represents the voice of employees at Grovaz?

We listen very carefully to all our employees [firmly].

I just want to address some recent details that emerged over the last week about gender equality in Petunisia. It's well recognised that managerial and major decision-making positions in workplaces and government are male dominated in Petunisia.Can you comment on the degree to which this applies at Grovaz and could you provide an example within the organisation where this issue has risen?

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive, open workplace, with a view to encouraging and developing innovation for the advancement of our business.We employ women on our factory production lines. It is true that there are no women at the management level, as most women prefer to stay at home once they have children to look after them, and so leave us.

Is the business making a sizeable profit at the moment which would allow it to invest in technology or paying workers more?

For sure we are making a small but consistent profit which we invest in our people and technology. For instance, our management team is selected from the top performing individuals in our company, and we help them by sending them on overseas training courses etc. Recently we invested in upgrading our production lines so that we need less factory labour.

Right, that sounds positive. Let's shift the questions slightly. Recent press acknowledges the company's efforts to move towards a sustainable pathway. What is the energy consumption usage at Grovaz? Do they use efficient lightbulbs for example?

We have a reasonable energy consumption for companies of our type/operation. We do use fluorescent lights, and CFBs.However, we are always looking to do better, and save money.

What is the company's current handling of recyclables and wastewater from their manufacturing activities?

Unfortunately, we do not recycle anything. We make sure of sanitation, and properly dispose of all materials such as waste packaging etc. Our wastewater is taken by the local sewage system.

What is the packaging of the products? And where is this sourced from?

We source our plastic packaging material from various international sources including Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Russia and others.

Where are the other ingredients imported from and how are they transported?

It varies tremendously with the ingredient, but many of the basic items are sourced from Italy, Greece, Ukraine and Russia. Much of this is transported by road across very difficult terrain. Occasionally, we will use air transport, if roads are closed due to landslides etc.

Apart from cocoa, why don't Grovaz locally source ingredients for the confectioneries (flour, sugar for example) instead of importing from overseas?

Petunisia is mountainous and is not suited for broad-acre farming such as wheat, sugarcane etc.

Would Grovaz be welcoming towards establishing a responsible and sustainable production and consumption? Do you believe it's a priority for the company?

Without a doubt that is a goal of the company - we are halfway through 2021 - and this is the Decade of Action, how can it not be something that we aspire to achieve? I'll be honest - and I don't believe this is an isolated view in the company - we know that the cacao we purchase has resulted in the clearing of native vegetation, we know that this presents challenges for us moving forward with global expansion. As a company we want to find a path that will enable us to scale yet one that also respects the environment and the communities of Petunisia and beyond. If we can't do this, we won't be sustainable ourselves!

Inspiring words. So, how do you do this?

This is what we're currently working on, but we need external assistance to help provide some guidance and direction. One initiative is to put together a tender inviting groups to identify potential opportunities for expansion to Australia/Malaysia with consideration of ESG issues. This is the beginning of something quite significant for us.

Do you have any kind of sustainability action plan or strategy at this stage?

No not yet

I would like to shift questions to the farming of cacao. I'm assuming Grovaz is the largest buyer of corn from the brokers and if so, by what percentage (roughly)?

I believe we are a major buyer of the total Petunisia supply, as what we pay the brokers constitute around 5%~7% of the total officially reported revenues of the brokers for corn.

At the beginning of the year, one of Petunisia's active NGO's published an article about the lack of fair pay for corn farmers. What are your thoughts about this?

I read that article. The report indicated that farmers may be receiving a very small fraction of the money the brokers are paid by companies like us. This is difficult to verify as access to the farmers is limited but it is something we would like to understand more about.

The other issue that emerged in that article was that of the farmer's work ethic and potentially children working on these farms ...

Yes, yes I know where you are going here. Look, that stuff can't be directly attributed back to us. We all know that the people of Petunisia are generally hard-working. Farmers even more so. They work long hours on their farms with the involvement of multiple members of the extended family. Yes, there has been some evidence of children within families participating in these activities, particularly the harvesting of corn but that's for the farmers to sort out...some foreigners may not understand this, but children working on farms is a way of life here, and in many parts of Europe.

The amount of money that farmers are receiving for their corn means that they are struggling to make ends meet, and need everyone in the house to work on the farm to make sure there is enough income. These are your suppliers, surely you have an obligation to consider the sustainability practices of your supply chain?

Look, I think we might leave things there. It's been an intense discussion, to say the least, thank you.

Oh, ah, ok. I was ... [video recording stopped]

1) Explain what action/s 'Grozav' might adopt to address the issue/s and therefore improve performance in relation to this SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.. (You may reference to real case examples amongst multinational enterprises to support your recommendations) ( max 300 words)