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What is Fair Trade?
Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach to empowering developing country producers and promoting sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and flowers.
Taken from Wikipedia
Fair trade is a system of exchange that seeks to create greater equity and partnership in the international trading system by
- Providing fair wages in the local context,
- Supporting safe, healthy, and participatory workplaces,
- Supplying financial and technical support to build capacity,
- Ensuring environmental sustainability,
- Respecting cultural identity,
- Offering public accountability and transparency,
- Building direct and long-term relationships, and
- Educating consumers.
Taken from the FTF website
Why Fair Trade?
Fair Trade empowers producers in developing countries:
- By giving marginalized producers access to markets which they otherwise would not have
- By Establishing Sustainable and Equitable Trading Relationships
- Through Capacity Building & Empowerment
- Through Consumer Awareness Raising & Advocacy
Fair Trade in Plain English…
Fair Trade gives the producers, usually individual artisans or collectives, ability to sell their products in markets which they otherwise would not be able to access. For example, whereas artisans generally have access to their local market, working with a fair trade importer such as Pueblito, gives these same artisans access to worldwide markets regardless of how small they are. The size, geographical remoteness, poor telecommunications access, language barrier or lack of credit rating and traditional corporate structure would in a standard trading relationship present a barrier for importers to work with these artisans. Within the fair trade framework this barrier is overcome as a part of the fair trade relationship and in the interest of working with marginalized producers.
The trading relationship must meet certain criteria to be considered fair trade. For example, buyers/importers of fair trade goods MUST pay producers fair wages (or equivalent thereof) in the local context. It also requires traders to provide technical and financial support which may include loans/credits, knowledge transfer or direct financial or technological support. If working with collectives or larger producers, the traders must ensure that producers provide safe, healthy and participatory workplaces.
How does buying fair trade tagua jewelry help?
In simple terms, buying any fair trade product helps by ensuring that producers see a larger portion of the price you pay. However these producers receive more than just more money. They receive assistance, knowledge and placement of their products in markets they could not reach on their own. It gives talented but disadvantaged or marginalized producers (in our case artisans) an opportunity to participate in a leveled global market.
Why is Pueblito Jewelry Fair Trade?
Pueblito jewelry is fair trade because we embrace the requirements outlined by the FTF and other fair trade organizations. We work with individual artisans in South America, providing them with fair compensation for products they produce. We assist these artisans by providing financial help in form of interest free loans for 50% of each order we place, which is applied towards the purchase price of the order. The remainder we pay immediately upon accepting the merchandise. For comparison, in a traditional trading relationship producers generally do not receive any compensation until the merchandise is delivered or sometimes 30, 60 or 90 days after (in fact this is how some of our wholesale customers pay us). Our products are eco-friendly and sustainable.
We provide these artisans with product, design and technological advice and sometimes direct support in form of technological devices (cameras, phones, etc).
We spend time and money to promote our products at shows and via the Internet, using every opportunity to educate those who we come in touch with about the merits of fair trade and buying eco-friendly and sustainable products.
But most importantly we hope, and have seen, that the business you bring to us as a consumer and in turn we bring to artisans we work with, helps them economically. It enables them to improve their lives and break out of cycle of poverty, which they are often trapped in. It gives them economic freedom which is often a pre-requisite and basis for other forms of freedom whether social, religious or political. Our collective choice to participate in fair trade makes a difference.
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