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Fair-Trade Movement Has Become a Growing Force

Posted on: Monday, 20 March 2006, 21:00 CST

By William Conroy, Asbury Park Press, N.J.

Mar. 19--Amber Graves Jacobowitz did not know what the fair-trade movement was until she applied for the manager's job at the Ten Thousand Villages arts and crafts store that was about to open on Broad Street in Red Bank last June.

"I had no idea when I came to Ten Thousand Villages that I was going to walk into . . . such a socially conscious store," said Jacobowitz, who owned a home furnishings store on Front Street in Red Bank that she shut down just before she joined Ten Thousand Villages.

"I definitely was educated from the moment I walked in the door about how differently this company works from the retail operations I was used to working in and running," she said.

The key difference is, "they care about -- not just the product -- but the person who's making the product," Jacobowitz said.

Fair-trade advocates such as Ten Thousand Villages -- a nonprofit organization that was started in 1946 by Edna Ruth Byler, a volunteer for the Mennonite Central Committee -- want to give businesses, cooperatives and individual artisans in poor or marginalized parts of the world a higher or "fair" price for what they create and a more direct route into lucrative markets in America, Europe and Asia.

In recent years, the movement has grown beyond a few do-gooders to become a growing force in the marketplace. Fair-trade goods are increasingly being made available to mainstream consumers by organizations such as Oakland, Calif.-based Transfair USA, which certifies fair trade compliance for commodities such as coffee, cocoa, tea, rice and fruits.

To get certified by Transfair, a company must prove it pays producers stable minimum prices, that it doesn't allow forced labor or child labor, and that environmentally sound, sustainable methods of production are used to produce its goods. The group does not yet certify apparel or craft items.

Not all fair-traders are non-profits like Akron, Pa.-based Ten Thousand Villages, but all say they want to pay their suppliers a good price they can live on instead of exploiting them.

James Potemkin sells rugs, furniture and art he finds in Mexico and Guatemala in his Animas Traders and Animas Alta stores in Rochester, N.Y.

He spends up to $40,000 on months-long expeditions twice each year to gather his inventory.

"I don't argue over price and I'm not greedy," the former teacher told the Associated Press. "In my heart, it's very important to me that I can't make more than the artisan."

Amanda Maishman of Long Branch was looking for a birthday gift for her sister on a visit to Ten Thousand Villages last week. She said she had shopped there before and likes the idea that her purchases go to a good cause.

"They have quality things at reasonable prices," said Maishman, as her 2-year-old, Melody, played with a stick made in Chile that made a sound like rain falling when she shook it. "Well, some of their things are expensive, but most of them are really affordable."

Jacobowitz highlighted some of the differences between a typical retail operation and a fair-trade shop.

"I bought from wholesalers (as a retailer) and I would mark up my price, and I probably wasn't real conscious of where my products were made," she said. "As long I was getting them at an inexpensive price, and I could build up my markup to pay my rent and to cover my expenses."

Ten Thousand Villages, rather than going through wholesalers, deals directly with suppliers, eliminating a markup in the distribution channel to the consumer so it can afford to pay the supplier more, Jacobowitz said.

The inspiration for the name Ten Thousand Villages is a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi: "India is not to be found in its few cities but in the 700,000 villages -- we have hardly ever paused to inquire if these folks get sufficient to eat and clothe themselves with."

The organization elaborates on its Web site that "To us, each village in the world represents a unique, distinctive people -- offering extraordinary products born of their rich cultures and traditions."

Ten Thousand Villages has lower labor costs than the typical retailer because so many of its staffers are volunteers. For example, Jacobowitz is one of only three paid staffers at the Red Bank store. The rest of the workers are volunteers.

"We have 20 volunteers who work 16 hours (each) a month," she said.

Many of the volunteers are high school students, Jacobowitz said.

The use of volunteers enables Ten Thousand Villages to compete with other retailers and afford high-rent retail locations such as downtown Red Bank, Summit and Princeton, its three locations in New Jersey, said Juanita Fox, spokeswoman for the organization. All told, there are 71 stores in the United States, with about five-to-seven being added each year, she said. Sales in fiscal year that ended March 31, 2005, were $16.1 million, compared with $15.2 million a year earlier.

"We really squeeze the middle, the overhead," Fox said. "We have volunteers in all facets -- office staff, the warehouse (in Akron)."

Ten Thousand Villages is owned by the Mennonite Central Committee but is operated by a separate board of directors, Fox said. The organization does not proselytize for the religion or raise money for it, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Source: Asbury Park Press

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