Unfortunately, the term “fair trade” is misused more often than not. Please research how a company will use money from your purchase. If they don’t tell you, then it’s probably a scam. If they only give 10% of the money back to the artist, that’s no different than any other corporation donating money for a tax write-off. Make sure you know what you’re supporting so you can feel good about helping those in poverty through your purchase!
Fair Trade should be more than a marketing buzzword, and at Village Markets of Africa, we make fair trade our core philosophy. We pay fair market prices directly to producing artisans and eliminate any exploitative middlemen. After sales, we return 50% of our profits to the artisans in the form of microloans, job training, machines and tools. How is anything less than 50/50 fair?
For more information, please visit our website.
www.villagemarketsofafrica.com
October 1, 2009 at 8:44 pm |
What differentiates Village Markets of Africa from other fair trade companies is our direct profit sharing. All fair trade companies pay fair upfront wages to supplying artisans in developing countries, and all fair trade companies make significant profits reselling their products, but Village Markets of Africa is the only fair trade company that returns 50% of profits after sales back to the artisans.
EXAMPLE: Many large fair trade companies purchase products from artisans in Africa. The supplying artisan could make $2-3 profit from selling a $4 necklace, which is indeed considered fair for the local economy, but the fair trade company can make $20 in profit from reselling the same $4 necklace.
Until artisans in developing countries make the same profits as the representative retail agent here in the USA, the trade cannot be considered truly fair… They are less exploitative at best.
How can anything less than 50/50 be considered fair?
Village Markets of Africa returns 50% of our company profits directly to supplying artisans in the form of grants for production upgrades, microloans to encourage growth, and job training to promote future diversification. In three years of operation, we have carried out numerous development projects through the Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church and literally saved the lives of people living in poverty across Africa.
Before you buy fair trade, find out where your money will actually go. How much profit does your favorite fair trade company make and what, if any, percentage is shared with the producers? Refuse to buy products from fair trade companies where less than 50% of profits are returned to producers.
More fair ≠ fair!
Join Village Markets of Africa in our fair trade mission.
Over 200 fair trade products online: Or call us Toll Free for more information:
http://www.villagemarketsofafrica.com (888) 4-VMA-STORE