Global Fair Trade sales up 22% in 2008

The Fair Trade Foundation just issued a report showing a 22% increase in global fair trade sales in 2008. That would be a great result anyway, but it is all the better given the general economic conditions we’re experiencing.

Fair Trade sales in the US rose 10%, but we were eclipsed in total sales for the first time by the UK, who saw a massive 43% increase in 2008.

You can check out the full report here.

Zimbabwe…..signs of progress?

We have some great products in our store from Zimbabwe, and feel like we have a closer-than-average connection to that country through interactions with some of our favorite wholesaler/importers. It’s been particularly painful to watch as the country lurches between forward and backward steps as it makes it’s way (hopefully) towards democracy and an end to violence.

There was an interesting news item from the BBC today; they’ve been allowed back in Zimbabwe, after an absence of 8 years.

Maybe this is a sign of positive days ahead?

Fair Trade the White House – have you signed up yet?

We posted about this great campaign earlier in the year.

Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, if you agree that it is, visit the site again (www.FairTradetheWhiteHouse.com) and sign up.

But don’t stop there – pass the info on to your friends and ask them to do the same thing.

The growth of Fair Trade over recent years has been amazing, but the retailers/wholesalers/importers are just facilitators of this growth – the real drivers are consumers, people that make a difference by choosing to buy Fair Trade whenever they have that option, and asking for Fair Trade when they don’t have that option. It’s consumer demand that has encourage Cadbury’s to go Fair Trade with their leading brand, Milk Chocolate.

So, this campaign targets the highest profile consumers in the country; the occupants of the White House. Let them know that you support Fair Trade, and that you want them to support it too.

Thank you!

Green Crushed Olives from interrupcion fair trade

You were introduced to interrupcion fair trade yesterday.

Green Crushed Olive Spread

The first product that we tried was their green crushed olives. This all-natural spread is made from freshly handpicked olives in the Mendoza Province of Argentina. Olives are crushed and puréed until smooth, leaving it with a clean, pure, fruity flavor. Ideal as a spread on gourmet bread, crackers and pita. Also, excellent served with vegetables, fish and meat or used as an ingredient in pasta sauce and salad dressings.

Here’s some info about one of the producer groups involved in producing green crushed olive spread:

Cooperativa Colihua has 1760 community members, with 14 producers employing 21 permanent workeres and 130 temporary workers.

Argentina’s economic collapse in 2001 forced many below the poverty line and informal employment has proliferated. Today, 45% of Argentina’s workforce still works in ‘negro’ (i.e. without legal registration) earning an average $156 per month, or 60% below the national minimum wage. With Fair Trade certification, Francisco Alcaraz S.A. has ensured that all workers are employed legally, working in safe conditions and earning the national minimum wage. Every purchase of inft* Crushed Olives supports their small operation, it’s all-natural production and demonstrates to other businesses in the region that profitability and social responsibility go hand in hand.

Cooperativa Colihua is working to strengthen its cooperative of small and medium producers in order to compete with corporate production in the region. An important challenge is finding higher-value markets for their products. Currently the cooperative’s main avenue of trade is bulk export to Brazil because supermarkets in Argentina require a large payment to access their shelves: an investment that only dominant olive traders can afford. interrupcion* is working with Cooperativa Colihua to direct a portion of their harvest into the 2008 production of their Crushed Olive Spread. Social Premiums generated from all 2008 Crushed Olive Spread sales will be invested in capacity to also package and label whole olives for sale in the U.S. with interrupcion*. A better deal and higher-value markets through Fair Trade will provide much needed economic stability.

Gourmet products from Interrupcion Fair Trade, Argentina – now at Global Fayre, Springfield!

We’ve just taken our first delivery from a new member of the Fair Trade Federation.

Interrupcion Fair Trade decribe themselves as “a stakeholder community that is working to build a sustainable future through responsible consumption, sustainable development, organic farming and fair trade…….The journey toward a sustainable future begins when we interrupt* habitual ways of understanding our personal impact on the world to develop a new, global sense of influence that creates responsible action. This concept of interrupting* to create a more responsible, healthy and sustainable form of participation in society gave us our name: interrupcion*“

Interrupcion began as a non-profit organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina dedicated to promoting socially responsible business and citizen participation in response to the dramatic Argentine economic collapse in 2001. Their first socially responsible products arrived in New York in 2003: colorful, scented candles from a small candle making cooperative in Buenos Aires.

Their product catalogue has grown extensively as they continue to partner with small and medium producers in Argentina to create premium, all-natural Organic and Fair Trade products while investing to build sustainability into each aspect of production.

We’re not quite their first retailers in Missouri; they already sell through Whole Food Market in St Louis and Kansas City but we’re excited to add their Grocery products to our great range of gourmet Fair Trade foods.

SO today’s first challenge is to get these great products out on the shelves in our store in downtown Springfield, MO. After that we’ll be adding them to our online store too – so if you’re in the neighborhood pop in and ask for a sample!

If you’re not in the neighborhood get online and order some……the first ten online orders that include Interrupcion products will get a whopping 15% discount on the entire order. How awesome is that?! Just enter the code “chimi” before you check out and the discount will be applied if you are one of the lucky 10.

We’ll tell you more about each of the products in later posts, but here’s what they look like:

fair trade organic extra virgin olive oil

fair trade chimichurri steak & vegetable sauce

fair trade crushed olive spread - available with green or black olives

organic spaghetti - comes in 3 flavors...red pepper, spinach or whole grain

Brazil Nut products from Candela Peru

We have many products in the store that appear relatively hard to find elsewhere, not just as Fair Trade products, but in any form.

Brazil Nut oil from Candela Peru

One such product is Brazil Nut Oil.

We’ve carried Brazil Nut oil from Candela Peru since we first opened, and it has always attracted a loyal following – whether because of its great taste, or because of its good qualities is hard to say…..people just love it!

Candela Peru works with 273 Brazil nut gatherers (castañeros) and their families who live along the Madre de Dios River in the Peruvian rainforest. Candela’s Brazil nuts are harvested from trees that grow naturally in the rainforest and reach heights of over 150 feet. The nut pods fall from the trees, are gathered, and then the pods are cracked open with machetes to extract the nuts, which are used for food or oil. The nut gatherers’ livelihood depends on the sound management of forest resources, and they are working closely with the staff of Candela to improve the quality of their organic product.

Candela Peru is a non-profit alternative trading organization, founded in 1989, which offers training to the nut gatherers in the areas of administration, sustainable resource management, and export procedures. Candela is committed to improving the living standards of the Brazil nuts gatherers through better income and to help build local capacity and empowerment.

Purchases of Candela’s Brazil nuts and Brazil nut oil provide an income to the nut harvesters and their families and promote sustainable use of the Peruvian rainforest.

As for the health qualities of brazil nuts, here’s what Sixwise.com, who ranks them #5 on the nut ‘top health’ list, has to say about them:

These nuts are extremely nutrient-rich and contain protein, copper, niacin, magnesium, fiber, vitamin E and selenium. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant that works to neutralize dangerous free radicals. A study at the University of Illinois even found that the high amounts of selenium in Brazil nuts may help prevent breast cancer.

Organic brazil nut oil, as well as organic dry roasted brazil nuts, is available from Global Fayre in our downtown Springfield location, and in our online store.

More good coverage for Fair Trade in Springfield

Global Fayre got coverage in the last edition of the Springfield Business Journal; this time it’s the turn of Karen at Anna Sophia’s.

At this rate, this Fair Trade thing might actually catch on here!

For more information on Fair Trade in general, and Global Fayre in particular, go here.

Musical instruments from Jamtown – now at Global Fayre

We’ve made several references to the Fair Trade Federation Conference we went to in Portland, OR earlier this year.

One of the members that we met for the first time was John, from Jamtown. John makes a great contribution to the work of the Fair Trade movement in the USA; drums have been always been a key way for people to connect, and we used that to great effect during World Fair Trade Day when many groups held drumming events to celebrate the day.

Here’s what John says about Jamtown:

JAMTOWN is a musical place that’s not on any map. It’s a place you visit when you play live rhythm with your friends; a subtle reminder of the common bond shared by all people. And it’s as accessible today as it was thousands of years ago.

This is my tenth year in business after leaving the corporate world! Basically, I am an adventure traveller choosing to work directly with producer groups, and these are usually extended families. The goal is to sustain long-term trading relationships to create economic stability. With your help, we provide critical support to these low-income families through fair wages in the local context and other valuable assistance. Most that I have met convey a love for their work and a gentle approach to life. It is a big reasons I do what I do. I gain critical perspective on my own culture by visiting theirs.

As a Fair trade Federation Member, we support artisans with fair wages and more!

We took our first delivery from Jamtown this week; we’re really excited about stocking their products and will ramp up the selection later in the year.

Here’s a selection of what we’ve got so far:

Turtle Frame Drum, made in Indonesia. Looks cute, sounds better than cute!

Kente Cloth Talking Drum, from Ghana. We’ve had these before, but not of this quality. Squeeze the strings to get a tonal talking range.

Ocarina Necklaces from Peru – animal and traditional.

Just awesome! Molded clay painted by hand. Play almost a full scale using 6 holes. Includes a fingering chart.

Trashy Bags from Global Mamas arrive at Global Fayre

The clothing and other items we get from Global Mamas is usually beautiful, and their range is a hit with our customers, but our latest delivery from them this week was just trash.

Literally.

Here’s the story behind this really cool range:

“One of the biggest problems in Ghana is trash and pollution. If there were a main product that wholly symbolizes this issue, it would be drink sachets. Drink sachets are the most popular item to buy on the street and highway, and due to this fact, they also account for the majority of litter on the ground. This plastic material is chosen because it is easily accessible and hygienic, but it is far from being bio-degradable, and therefore, takes quite a toll when it is not disposed of properly. However, Trashy Bags has decided to take advantage of this durable material by using these discarded sachets to create purses, wallets, briefcases, etc. Items such as these have a much longer and useful life span than their sachet counterparts with which they are made of.
The main goals of Trashy Bags are not just fulfilling its popular purpose of “cleaning up Ghana,” but also to inform the public about the issue with drink sachets. Every customer, contributor, employee, and business partner of Trashy Bags is educated about this problem in Ghana, what the organization is doing to counteract it, and how a single purchase can greatly contribute to these objectives.”

You can check out the whole range of trash in our online store or better still come and see it in person at our store in downtown Springfield, MO.

Handbags of Hope from the Philippines

At one point the Philippines had the dubious honor of having the world’s largest garbage dump, known as Manila’s Smokey Mountain. People with no other choice in life found themselves scavenging for recyclable bottles from the dump to make ends meet. As Smokey Mountain became an infamous symbol of Asian poverty, the President of the Philippines provided seed funding for microfinance loans to over 2,000 women in two years. The local Catholic parish overseeing the loans created a cooperative to produce beautiful hand-crafted goods. What they produce are more than just handbags. They are unique, earth-loving pieces of artwork. And they represent hope for women building better lives for their families.

We just ordered a new shipment of these beautiful bags; they are available now in our downtown store and online as well.