Fair Trade Week

The idea behind Fair Trade as far as I understand is to ensure that farmers in the developing world get a fair price for their produce.

But my question today is who decides what is included on the list and what isn't?

For instance in November 2007 I attended an event and happened to sit next to a guy from the Fair Trade organisation. I asked him how the female producers at Ethnic supplies could go about registering with Fair Trade. He looked me in the eye and told me that Textile and handicrafts are not included.

I asked him why and did he realise that he was possibly excluding two thirds of the world’s population from the opportunity of earning a fair wage for their hard work?

This is a figure I plucked out of the air and has no basis in fact per se, but I just wanted to make a point which was that if that is how Fair Trade operates then surely it is an unfair system?

Something else that troubles me is the fact that something like coffee leaves the developing world as a raw material and at that stage it is not worth a lot. The coffee houses in the west process it and add value, and charge whatever they like.

Is that fair or ethical even? How do governments in the developing worlds generate tax, if the real value of something like coffee is not realised until it hits the coffee houses?

I am by no means an expert at these things and I am merely raising them to generate discussion and debate.

Would a system that allowed value addition at base be a much better system for all? It works well here at Ethnic Supplies. Our ladies take whatever they can find useless grasses etc and turn them into these beautiful and useful items


this basket for instance is made from papyrus and raffia, the colour is achieved form dyes found in the root plants I am not aware that any of those raw materials being traded as commodities. However a finished basket like this enables a woman to send her child to school, pay for health care and could be the difference between the family going hungry or not. It makes an excellent bread basket and or bathroom tidy



This table runner is produced from combining raffia and cotton and the colours are from roots of plants. What is exciting about suing cotton in this way is that cotton farmers in Africa in particular were hit with an increase in second hand clothes that are donated by well wishers in the west but end up in markets being sold for very little, not to mention the subsidies that are given to cotton farmers in the US

Ethnic Supplies: Extreme poverty would continue to hit sub-Saharan Africa out of 80 countries for another 200 years

Ethnic Supplies: Extreme poverty would continue to hit sub-Saharan Africa out of 80 countries for another 200 years

Extreme poverty would continue to hit sub-Saharan Africa out of 80 countries for another 200 years

I sincerely hope not but according to the the Africa News Journal a newly published report from Social Watch.

What has worried us here at Ethnic Supplies are the implications for women and children, further more that even thsoe countries that had made real progress in terms of getting the general population out of poverty are at a stand still.


The million dollar question is how can this be avoided? How can a continent that is rich in diamonds, Oil etc be facing this prospect?

Waht are your views?

Primark without the Ethical Tag

I watched the news about Primark on BBC news at 10:00 with interest. You can follow the rest of the story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7824291.stm

I am not surprised that Primark finds itself in this situation. As someone that works alongside textile and handicraft producers in the developing world I can safely say that there is now way a company can churn out that amount /number of garments without someone somewhere being exploited.

In order to comply or call yourself an ethical provider you have to "police" your suppliers to ensure that they subscribe to your ethical agenda. Here at Ethnic Supplies LTD we do not work with anyone we have not met and even when our producers are required to prove that the work is there own. We inspect their workshops annually to ensure that for instance child labour is not used.



Flotea owner and founder of Marvelous batiks, our Textile producers in Tanzania









Marvelous Batiks workshop in Dar-es Salam



I remember in our first year of trading we met a woman in a handicraft market in Kampala Uganda. We bought a couple of jute bags from her that we thought looked really nice and very well made. She informed us that she was a partner of a Kikuyu woman based in Nairobi Kenya.

The bags were very well made and we had a feeling our customers would love them. We sent a sample to our contact in Nairobi and asked her to help us find the kikuyu woman who apparently made these bags before we could establish a working relationship with the woman in Kampala.

It took our contact nearly 6 weeks to get to the bottom of what was going on, but it transpired that the bags were actually made in Thailand and the Kikuyu woman was merely a distributor to others such as the woman we met in Uganda. Needless to say that was the end of that and it goes to show how vigilant you have to be in order to claim that you are an ethical company!