Faces of Fair Trade

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One of the many difficulties of fair trade is the seemingly depersonalized nature of the market. Sure it allows direct payment to the producer. But, transactions used to be face to face. The consumer would walk into her local store, find the good she was looking for maybe with the help of an employee who happened to be a local boy, and then would get wrung up by the store owner, a resident of the town.

In today’s society we’ve shifted away from this personalized shopping experience. Now Walmart and other big brand names are replacing the small local producers and sellers. Money now shifts from the consumers’ pockets to the national headquarters hundreds of miles away. You no longer see the faces of who’s receiving your money, except maybe on T.V.

Globalization, thankfully, has led to an increase in the Fair Trade market because it is now easier for producers to get their products directly to the consumers. One of the negative externalities of globalization however is the depersonalization of production and consumption. The producers no longer see the faces of the people buying their products and vice versa. I really dislike using clichés and I am about to be really hypocritical to anyone’s writing I’ve ever proofread, but, “out of sight…out of mind.” Consumers don’t realize the effect they can have on the producers life by buying their product. They don’t see the great dependence these people have on your support.

Here at Amani Fair Trade, we do see this. Just a couple of weeks ago one of our producers in India was devastated by a massive flood. We got an email from his representative saying he would really appreciate a new order to help him and his family get back on their feet. Even our small student run company can have such a massive impact on this man’s life half way across the world. It’s without reminders like these that many consumers might forget about the impact their choice in product makes. It’s a lot easier going for the name brand or cheaper product when you don’t have the image of an impoverished family dependent on their small business on your mind.

So for that reason I would like to introduce you to some of the faces of Fair Trade:

1) The Independent Artisan

Source—Bir Bahadur Bishwakarma started producing copper crafts at the age of 9, carrying on the tradition of his Nepalese ancestors. After 25 years of working as a coppersmith, he was given the opportunity to train on metal sheets at the Balaju Mechanical Centre in Nepal, where he learned the skills to expand his trade. Now, at the age of 47, he and his brother employ 20 artisans, mostly coppersmiths who come from the low-income segment of the community. By creating these jobs, Bir Bahadur has been able to improve economic conditions for his whole community while, on a personal level, also paying for his son’s education and for his daughter’s wedding.

2) The Small Family Business

Source—These leather bags are designed by Theodoro Quispe Lupa, in Cusco, Peru. He comes from a heritage of leather workers, and now runs a small family business from his home village which employs 7 people.

They hand make approximately 10 bags a day using traditional skills. The bags all incorporate traditional Incan textiles woven from alpaca fiber.

3) The Community Cooperative 

Source—Founded in 1990 by a multinational group of young entrepreneurs, Caribbean Craft —formerly known as Drexco—promotes employment in Haiti by training unskilled - but often highly gifted - craftspeople, and by assisting the independent artisans through the introduction of new designs and new market outlets. Unemployment in Haiti, the poorest country of the American hemisphere, is variously estimated at between 60 and 80%.

The organization has gone through rough times during the past years, marked by political troubles and economic difficulties including a 3-year long embargo on all Haitian exports. Drexco saw in 1997 its premises totally ransacked and then destroyed during gang violence. Relocated in a higher-security industrial park, the organization currently employs 400 artisans either as salaried employees or outside contractors, with roughly equal numbers of men and women.

Caribbean Craft’s specialty is the brightly colored, artistically hand-painted home décor objects, which can be purely decorative, such as wall hangings , or consist of objects useful in the home, like switch plates and magnets. The natural artistic talents of the Haitians are well known, and many of these hand-painted pieces are truly works of art.

      4) The Large Scale Fair Trade Exporter

Source—Turqle is an umbrella organization that enables fair and ethical export trade by providing the vital linkage services – those services and expertise that would be too expensive for individual small to medium sized companies to employ.

Most of our customers also require a higher than normal level of environmental reporting, and managing all the social responsibility aspects takes time and expertise.

It is often the inability of manufacturers to maintain these 'links' - particularly in the fair trading context - that make sustainable trade difficult for customers.

Operationally, Turqle is self-funded - we do not own production facilities and do not sell our own brand in the local market.