Hi everyone!
I am new to ebay and am in the process of building a purchasing network to introduce to the ebay buyer community for sale. I only want to purchase product that is responsibly produced/created and ideally, be involved in enrichment-type program.
Ultimately, I aim to have a walk-in store to help my local neighbors sell their goods, but in the meantime, I want to build a good, socio/ecologogically aware store, selling only items with ethical roots. As I sell these items, I aim to educate ebay buyers...
How do I find companies to buy product from? I've been digging & researching and have yet to find anything that I'm comfortable representing.
Your suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Michele
www.thelaughingshepherd.com (be kind- I just started to build the site and it's an abomination- LOL!!!)
This is a good question.
We are a Fair Trade producer located in a developing country and find that there are many barriers to trading in developed countries. For example, we cannot participate directly in this worldofgood.com trading place as a requirement is a PayPal business account, and these are not made available by PayPal/ebay to companies/individuals in developing countries. We could work through one of the worldofgood.com nominated organizations, however the margins required by the companies push the retail prices higher that what we think customers should be paying. In fact the margins required by these companies are a lot greater than what we receive as the producer.
Another issue is that in many cases it is questionable if some of the goods claimed as Fair Trade are in actual fact produced under fair trade conditions. We are located in Viet Nam, see what is presented by supposedly fair trade retailers/wholesalers in developed countries, know where these goods are actually produced and by whom, and know that they are not fair trade!!! There are even questions in the minds of many people about the only registered Fair Trade company in Viet Nam.
The other issue is that the Fair Trade wholesalers are VERY narrow in their focus, and in many cases only those producers who pay bribes (whether they are fair trade or not) will ever have their products considered.
When you say " I've been digging & researching and have yet to find anything that I'm comfortable representing", what kinds of objections/concerns have you found? This would be of interest to many people. We have presented some issues from the view of a developing country producer, to learn more about your concerns as a buyer would be VERY valuable.
You can find a list of wholesalers who are members of the Fair Trade Federation at www.fairtradefedation.org. Handicrafts aren't certified Fair Trade like coffee, cocoa, etc. but there is a rigorous screening process to become a member of FTF. Are we perfect? Of course not. But I believe that the members of FTF are trying to do the right thing. And many actually buy directly from their artisans.
I am glad to hear of people asking these questions! We are a Fair Trade accredited producer of craft & art items & I sometimes wonder if Fair Trade is really fair... We pay massive membership fees, and are sadly never actively marketed by FT. We are scrutinised by importers in terms of what wages we pay - however, the same importers want pricing on a par with Chinese sweat-shop pricing...
You can find our organisation and a few others on the African arm of Fair Trade's website - COFTA. Otherwise, take a peek at ours and drop me a line! www.streetwires.co.za (website undergoing major work behind-the-scenes, but the old one is up!).
Best, C