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North Country Fair Trade
A Company Linking Fair Trade Producers to U.S. Consumers
Our Mission:
North Country Fair Trade (www.ethicalgoods.org) is committed to improving wages and labor conditions for production workers in Latin America by expanding the market in the United States for basic goods produced by fair trade production groups in Latin America.
Our Strategy
We have adopted a primary strategy of product substitution for basic consumer goods in high demand by U.S. consumers, organizations and institutions; by seeking out fair trade manufacturers of these products to provide as an alternative to goods produced in sweat shops. Because the most chilling abuses of third world production workers are taking place in the apparel industry, we are focusing our initial efforts in this product category. All consumers participate in the apparel industry with their clothing purchases, with the majority of apparel available in the U.S. coming from sweatshop producers.
We applaud the anti-sweatshop organizing work that pressures corporations to adopt codes of conduct. But we are convinced that large corporations will only take the anti-sweatshop message seriously when they witness consumer purchasing decisions that support the growth of sweat free producers. We acknowledge that building a comprehensive consumer product marketing and distribution system that balances the needs of production workers and consumers is a daunting task, but a long journey must begin with the first step.
Sourcing Fair Trade Products
North Country Fair Trade is developing sources for fair trade apparel from existing production businesses. Our primary support to these production groups is identifying socially conscious customers who are seeking to purchase the category of product they manufacture, and filling their orders.
We have entered into a distribution relationship with a women’s sewing cooperative in Nicaragua (COMAMNUVI) that produces cotton T-shirts and camisoles. We carry an inventory of their T-shirts and can ship them from our warehouse in Minneapolis on demand. We encourage these groups to expand their product line to meet customer demand that we identify.
North Country Fair Trade is also supporting the development of new fair trade production workshops to fill gaps in the production of sweat free products. Maquiladora Dignidad y Justicia (Maquiladora Dignity and Justice) in Piedras Negras, Mexico incorporated in March of 2004 to produce a variety of products including T-shirts, sweat shirts, and school uniforms.NCFT is a 30% owner of this workshop created by ex-maquila workers who were laid off from apparel assembly plants when the companies they worked for moved to areas or countries with lower wage rates. NCFT is providing on site technical support in establishing the business, is financing the purchase of equipment and initial start-up costs, and is seeking to match production of apparel products with specific customer demand.
Building an Alternative Marketing System
We believe the demand for basic goods produced under fair conditions is strong and growing thanks to years of hard work by fair trade coffee distributors and more recent consumer education projects launched by national groups including Co-op America, Global Exchange, Oxfam and a long list of anti-sweat shop organizations.
The development of fair trade production and distribution capacity for basic goods such as apparel, lags significantly behind the awareness and demand being created by fair trade agricultural commodities and this broader educational effort. The growth of production capacity in basic consumer goods depends on a close collaboration between buyers and producers. This requires a strong commitment both on the part of consumer organizations and producer organizations and effective communication between the two ends of the marketing system.
North Country Fair Trade is seeking to establish long term purchasing relationships between buyers for socially conscious institutions and the developing production businesses. Newly organized fair trade production businesses can only survive and thrive if they can count on a steady stream of orders for their product. We recognize that the product must meet the specifications of the customer institution, must be delivered on time and must be reasonably priced.The function of NCFT is to identify the product demand as specifically as possible (including securing samples), evaluate the feasibility of production, locate a fair trade production group that has the capacity to manufacture the product, deliver samples of the product to the buyer, and negotiate and deliver subsequent orders.
Our Vision
The current dominant marketing system is controlled primarily by large retail corporations and intermediaries that compete on price by suppressing labor pay scales to unconscionably low rates in third world countries (as low as 20 cents per hour).
Our vision is to create a marketing and distribution business that is owned jointly by consumer organizations and producer organizations where both ends of the marketing spectrum can be represented and the needs of producers and consumers are equitably balanced.
Reaching that vision will take a series of steps. Initially we are establishing a network of separate collaborating businesses, both consumer organizations and producer organizations. We are researching legal structures to provide an ownership opportunity to each entity in the marketing chain to provide equity (in all its meanings) to participants in the system.
Who Are We?
We are a small group of committed individuals with roots in the cooperative grocery movement reaching back to the 1970’s, experience in small scale fair trade projects in crafts, experience in Latin American solidarity groups, and a deep background in micro-business development particularly with Latino immigrant entrepreneurs.
Annual Report
Link to North Country Fair Trade's 2007 Annual Report
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