We source our goods from many producers and here are just a few:

Allpa, Peru

Established in 1986, Allpa is a private company with a name that means 'earth' in Ayacuchan Quechua. The name was chosen to honour the source materials of the objects the company produces in clay, stone, wood and metal.

Allpa works with 100 handicraft production workshops and is determined to make the manufacture of handicrafts a reliable means of sustained employment for a significant sector of the Peruvian population.

ASHA Handicrafts Association, India

Based in Mumbai, India, Asha is an association of businessmen dedicated to helping craftsmen in a number of ways but primarily, financially, ecologically and spiritually. Located in Mumbai, India, Asha Handicrafts has been practicing Fair Trade since 1975, before the idea of Fair Trade caught the world’s attention.

Asha means ‘hope’ in Sanskrit and the Association has brought hope to many people by providing individual craftsmen with an outlet for their goods, complemented by Asha’s welfare centre and various interrelated programs.

Teams of Asha welfare workers are closely involved with producer groups and cooperatives, imparting new skills and practices, and extending medical help and education. Asha’s technical training helps to increase efficiency and productivity and encourages growth and development in what is still very much a cottage industry.

Aspiration International, India

Aspiration is located in Delhi, India, and is a relatively small Fair Trading organisation in comparison to other fair trade organisations in India.

Aspiration works for the welfare of artisans and their families all over India, including Jaipur and Sarangapur, by developing and promoting various cottage industries, by improving social welfare, and by establishing fair wages.

Aspiration organises groups of skilled and semi-skilled artisans and helps to lift them out of poverty so that they can stand on their own feet. Some groups eventually become independent artisans within their own community.

Earth Bags, India

Based in Kolkata, India, Earth Bags is a specialist company in the production of bags made from jute, which is a sustainable material that is growing in popularity as people seek alternatives to plastic bags. Earth Bags is not a recognised Fair Trade organisation, but the company strives to ensure that its working conditions and the wages of its workers are both excellent.

Equitable Marketing Association, India

One of the oldest Fair Trade organisations in India, EMA’s founder worked with Gandhi!

EMA runs a community where disabled people from nearby villages live during the week making leather products, candles and musical instruments. Located 10 miles from Kolkata, EMA enables disabled people to contribute to their family’s income through a provident fund, medical insurance, a yearly bonus and a pension.

EMA set up the charity Ekta Trust to provide scholarships for widows and unemployed people living in Kamarhati. The charity also donates text books to students through its text book grant scheme and develops centres for single mothers, widows and wives separated from their husbands. The charity aims to plant 10,000 trees per year with the aid of South Kolkata youth clubs.

Get Paper Industry, Nepal

Get Paper Industry is a cooperative that uses waste materials such as used paper, cotton rags and agricultural waste to produce paper products. The paper is dried in the sun and the waste water is treated and reused so that the entire paper production process is environmentally friendly.

The mission of the Get Paper Industry is to develop Nepal’s traditional hand made paper crafts into a commercial and environmentally sustainable manufacturing process that provides employment, mainly for women.

Get Paper Industries puts 40% of its profit back into Nepal’s social development including the education of girls and AIDS awareness, complemented by tree planting and agricultural-based programmes to help generate local incomes.

Madhya Kalikata Shilpangan, India

The determination of MKS is to provide good working conditions for artisans, to promote quality products and develop community based production, and to encourage the use of environmentally friendly technology.

MKS training workshops are helping artisans develop their skills and rejuvenate Indian handicrafts through the provision of financial aid for new equipment, including interest-free loans, complemented by educational and medical facilities. There has also been the introduction of dust free equipment in the MKS stone production unit in order to provide a working atmosphere that is more environmentally friendly.

Mahaguthi, Nepal

Supported by Mahaguthi, over a thousand individual producers, many from remote, mountainous areas of Nepal, make and export handicrafts. 40% of the income generated by Mahaguthi provides women and children of the Tulsi Mehar Mahila Ashram with shelter, food, clothing, healthcare and education.

The Ashram centre was founded by the late Tulsi Mehar Mahila, who implemented many programmes to empower women in Nepalese society. At first Mahaguthi simply produced and sold Khadi cloth but, now, the organisation produces a wide range of marketable handicrafts.

Mitra Bali, Indonesia

Established in 1993, the Mitra Bali Foundation is located in Bali, Indonesia. A member of IFAT and a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, the Mitra Bali Foundation acts as a market and export facilitator for small craft producers.

About 100 producer groups and over 1,000 artisans work within the framework created by Mitra Bali and have access to a free Design Centre facility which has a library of books, current magazines and offers consultations with product designers. The Design Centre also holds monthly workshops that focus on new trends, technical production aspects, health & safety issues and the use of environmentally sustainable resources.

Motif, Bangladesh 

Motif works with disadvantaged women artisans and a number of small family owned businesses. Women experience discrimination for reasons other than poverty and they can be because they were former prostitutes or are afflicted with leprosy or another disease, or may have been divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Motif strives to help women who bear emotional and often physical scars and to remove the stigma of their situation by providing employment. This gives the women a safe place to work and live and where they can build friendships with other women while also earning their keep.

Motif produces accessories and stationery items from varying recycled materials such as cement bags and crisp packets. Traditional techniques such as hand-weaving, hand-loom weaving and basket weaving are kept alive by the work provided by Motif.

The image opposite shows some of the women weaving recycled crisp packet boxes.

Papeterie, India

Papeterie was founded in 1995 to promote handmade recycled paper and paper products. The company specialises in paper made from elephant dung, which is collected from Rajasthan. A small amount of recycled cotton rags is added, nothing in India is ever wasted, and once the fibre has been extracted, the finished paper is richly textured with a unique matte finish. Leftover elephant dung is used as fertiliser.

SALAY - Salay Handmade Paper Industries Inc (SHAPII), Philippines

SHAPII was founded in 1987 as a family business and has grown to employ over 200 people, making handmade paper, cards and stationery items. The Philippines government regards this project as a model for creating rural employment without the need for large investment.

The employment SHAPII provides has brought real stability to the small seaside town of Salay where employees work in light, airy and spacious areas, complemented by free medical consultation, dental health checks and eyeglasses.

SHAPII workers participate in decision-making and have the option of becoming shareholders. The paper they produce is made from grasses and leaves which are gathered from the streets and gardens nearby. This process has the added benefit of keeping the village free of the fast-growing weed, cogon grass.

Teddy Export, India

Founded in 1990 by Amanda Murphy, Teddy Exports creates products that are both people and environment friendly by adapting traditional skills and by the use of sustainable local resources as raw materials.

Teddy Exports employs over 300 local people who benefit from above the norm salaries, bonuses, subsidised meals, maternity pay, free crèche, medical services, medicines and pensions. The Teddy Trust implements Teddy Exports’ social commitments through its social welfare programmes that include Education, Health Services, AIDS Awareness, women's development and, for local farmers, veterinary assistance.

Touch Of India, India

Founded in April 1998, a Touch of India is ISO certified and is a producer of a wide range of items including bags, jewellery, scarves, boxes, photo albums and homeware. The company prides itself on using ancient traditions of hand embroidery and for utilising recyclable materials. One hundred and fifty employees benefit from paid maternity leave, provident funds and insurance.

Touch of India has also adopted four children and now provides for their upbringing and education.