Trade Aid warehouse stocks world’s goods

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 13

Trade Aid warehouse stocks world’s goods

Trade Aid’s Christchurch warehouse has a truly international flavour. The Bexley building is packed with craft goods from all over the world. Copper earrings from Africa are nestled between jute works from Bangladesh and soap made in Western Samoa along with Indian lace, bamboo lampshades from the Philippines, wall hangings from Ecuador and Thai wood carvings. Traditionally most of Trade Aid’s products have been craft-orientated, but they have recently started a section called Fairtrade which deals exclusively in

foods. So products such as Sri Lankan tea and Nicaraguan coffee have found their way on to the shelves. Trade Aid was the brain child of a Christchurch couple, VI and Richard Cottrell. They were working with refugees in Northern India when they realised that New Zealand could be an ideal marketplace for the people’s Tibetan rugs. These people had lost all of their land and their possessions. The Cottrells’ aim was to help them by reviving their original crafts. From a very small

operation, Trade Aid has grown into a business with more than 20 shops and eight other retail outlets. It now deals with more than 100 different producer groups in' 30 countries.

According to the firm’s manager co-ordinator, Ms Marie Venning, there is an emphasis on dealing with the most disadvantaged groups in developing countries.

“It is based on the fact that there’s something wrong with the present system. We do not want to repeat old patterns, we do not want to deal with a middle man. We deal directly with the producers and aim to get the groups to share with the decision-making.” A high proportion of Trade Aid’s producers are women.

“A lot of the men can be caught up in seasonal work and it is the women who are left with the families,” Ms Venning said.

She says that Trade Aid has helped a lot of women in developing countries. Making money from their craft work often gives them a new independence and improves their status in the community. And their dignity and self-worth improves accordingly. Importing foodstuffs is a new sphere for Trade Aid.

They have started to import coffee from Nicaragua and tea from Sri Lanka. Trade Aid has a value added policy which means that it tries to import goods which have already been packaged. This ensures that the producer country makes the maximum profit. It had not been possible to get the coffee packed in Nicaragua, but tea from Sri Lanka now came in hand-woven reed packets made by the producers, Ms Venning said. Plans are also under way to import soap and spices from other countries. The organisation is also

helping on the New Zealand front. It is providing a sales outlet for a group at small a Northland settlement called Te Hapua. This group weaves Maori kit bags. It is also providing an outlet for an unemployed group at Kawarea which is making envelopes, cards and writing papers out of recycled paper.