Are Fair Trade Handicrafts Starting to Look Very Tired?

Back in the 1970’s during my student days I spent semester breaks travelling in SE Asia, and back home I would often visit the small stores selling Asian handicrafts. Many of these stores were the beginning of what we now see today as Fair Trade handicraft retailers.

But looking at these stores now, not much as changed and the products are looking tired.

In communicating with various Fair Trade producers, wholesalers and retailers a few things have become apparent. For many innovative and new Fair Trade handicraft producers it impossible to break into the Fair Trade market. Most have written to large distributors/wholesalers and the response coming back is usually along the lines of “Unfortunately at this time XYZ is unable to begin new partnerships ….. XYZ values the close relationships that it maintains with its current artisan and producer groups. These relationships help to ensure that our trading partners receive a consistent volume of purchases….”

Therefore we have a number of large wholesalers locked into a fixed group of producers supplying a significant percentage of the Fair Trade handicraft market. At the same time many Fair Trade producers are effectively locked out of this market. No wonder the Fair Trade handicrafts retail market looks tired.

Some retailers provide interesting retail environments for handicrafts. By combining handicrafts with organic and Fair Trade food, coffee, tea and tables where one can sit and enjoy a snack and coffee while browsing magazines etc. some pleasant retail spaces are being created. Interestingly, I find these sorts of stores are flourishing in the South where there is a lot more pressure on Fair Trade producers these days to sell locally as trade with the North has decreased significantly in recent years..

At Indochine Natural (www.indochinenatural.com) we have responded to these challenges in a number of ways? Firstly, we have given up entirely any hope of entering the Fair Trade market. We see are Fair Trade retailers/wholesalers trading in products similar to ours, but the focus is on low quality, and we cannot compete with our high quality products. Secondly, while maintaining our Fair Trade principles we are now competing on the open market with an emphasis on product quality pitching exclusively to top end markets including boutique hotels and organic retail chains. These buyers are not certified Fair Trade, but they support the principles of Fair Trade and leverage our Fair Trade status in their marketing.

There are very stark contrasts in dealing with the Fair Trade wholesalers who are very limited in the products that they will take and have the tendency to only want very cheap items (often well below our ingredient costs), and the open commercial market with its focus on our product quality and willingness to pay higher prices.

For us as a Fair Trade producer all of this is a no-brainer…..Fair Trade is a business model providing sustainable economic opportunities to the disadvantaged, and commercial sense says you go where the opportunities are without sacrificing Fair Trade principles. To survive, Fair Trade handicraft producers will need to move outside of the Fair Trade market and learn to compete in the open market. This will ultimately result in shrinking shop fronts in the exclusively Fair Trade retail sector (and even more tired looking products) as Fair Trade producers seek more lucrative sales channels. Ultimately, with more dynamic and interesting Fair Trade handicrafts appearing in upmarket mainstream outlets this may be a more effective channel for spreading the Fair Trade message. And it does not need to be limited to whole products, Fair Trade handicraft artisans may supply components of larger products, for example handmade decorative belt buckles for mainstream leather belts that may or may not be Fair Trade……the possibilities are limitless.

You can learn more about our company at www.indochinenatural.com