Traidcraft, the UK’s biggest fair trade company, has reported its seventh successive year of growth in purchases from suppliers.
The Gateshead-based business, which sells food, drinks, handicrafts and fashion products from mainly third world sources, increased its volume of purchases from suppliers by almost 12 per cent during 1998/9, exceeding its growth target of 10 per cent.
The figures are revealed in Traidcraft’s 1999 social accounts, which show that income to third world food and drink suppliers used by Traidcraft rose by £270,000 to almost £1.4 million last year, partly thanks to the introduction of a new tea product, teadirect, into supermarkets. The overall value of all goods bought from suppliers was £2 million.
Survey results published in the social accounts show the vast majority of suppliers agreed that Traidcraft pays fair prices for their products, that it pays promptly and that it behaves ‘openly and fairly’ in its business dealings.
The accounts, which include feedback from interviews with nine suppliers in India carried out by a local consultant, show that Traidcraft last year recruited 1,311 new ‘fair traders’ in the UK to complement its shop-sold operation by selling goods to friends, family, church groups and work colleagues. Sales made via fair traders increased by £550,000.
They also commit the company to new environmental targets to:
ensure all wood products come from identified sustainable sources by March 2003
reduce the number of freight shipments by air by 20 per cent over the next three years
reduce the weight of packaging by 15 per cent over the next three years.
Traidcraft, founded in 1979, has been a pioneer in social reporting since producing its first set of social accounts in 1993.
This year’s 30-page accounts follow draft standards published earlier this year by the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability (see EP2 , 1999) and for the first time include details of the activities of Traidcraft Exchange, a related charity that campaigns for an increase in ethical trading.