Producers with which we work can be divided into two categories :
These producers work along the lines of a fair trade approach. They often are members of fair trade networks (such as IFAT) and supply retailers such as "Oxfam Magasin du Monde". These associative and cooperative structures are not only looking for an individual benefit but also for an advancement of the whole community. Half of our products come from this category.
For example :
The Tara project
Based in Delhi, this project coordinates the production and the exportation of about twenty workshops in the North of India : Agra, Jodhpur,...
Each workshop is self-managed, salaries and working conditions are well above other production centres from the same sector.
Tara's beneficiary margin is used to fight against children work via publications, demonstrations and above all via school financing.
In the same vein, we also get some of our supply from Cooptex in Madras, MNKS-Jaipur, Craftftlink in Vietnam, and some Latin America's cooperatives via Andines.
- Concerned firms and independent craftsmen
These private firms, sometimes big or in the hands of wealthy families, are however concerned about the respect of the workers and of the environment. This commitment, perceptible on the production sites as well as in the interpersonal contacts, can be formalised in a charter.
Rupayan Craft is one example of these firms.
At the beginning it came out of a biologist's passion for natural pigments and their use in cotton dyeing. Less than ten years later, it is a corporation that diversifies its production by developing new techniques and materials such as silk jacquards produced near Calcutta, and that sells worldwide, from Japan to the Galeries Lafayette. But the initial concern remains : produce in the village in order to fight against rural exodus, and consider the countrymen as partners that need support and not as resources to be exploited.
In the same order, we buy through Dwarka, Hymayat, Gems, Kadir or to some independent craftsmen in Morocco, via Artishow.
