Fair Trade & Beyond!
We believe and stand for fair trade and follow their principals :
Create Opportunities for Economically and Socially Marginalized Producers
Fair Trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Members create social and economic opportunities through trading partnerships with marginalized producers. Members place the interests of producers and their communities as the primary concern of their enterprise.
Develop Transparent and Accountable Relationships
Fair Trade involves relationships that are open, fair, consistent, and respectful. Members show consideration for both customers and producers by sharing information about the entire trading chain through honest and proactive communication. They create mechanisms to help customers and producers feel actively involved in the trading chain. If problems arise, members work cooperatively with fair trade partners and other organizations to implement solutions.
Build Capacity
Fair Trade is a means to develop producers’ independence. Members maintain long-term relationships based on solidarity, trust, and mutual respect, so that producers can improve their skills and their access to markets. Members help producers to build capacity through proactive communication, financial and technical assistance, market information, and dialogue. They seek to share lessons learned, to spread best practices, and to strengthen the connections between communities, including among producer groups.
Promote Fair Trade
Fair Trade encourages an understanding by all participants of their role in world trade. Members actively raise awareness about Fair Trade and the possibility of greater justice in the global economic system. They encourage customers and producers to ask questions about conventional and alternative supply chains and to make informed choices. Members demonstrate that trade can be a positive force for improving living standards, health, education, the distribution of power, and the environment in the communities with which they work.
Pay Promptly and Fairly
Fair Trade empowers producers to set prices within the framework of the true costs of labor, time, materials, sustainable growth, and related factors. Members take steps to ensure that producers have the capacity to manage this process. Members comply with or exceed international, national, local, and, where applicable, Fair Trade Minimum standards for their employees and producers. Members seek to ensure that income is distributed equitably at all times, particularly equal pay for equal work by women and men. Members ensure prompt payment to all of their partners. Producers are offered access to interest-free advance payment for handmade goods, or pre-finance of agricultural harvest with favorable terms.
Support Safe and Empowering Working Conditions
Fair Trade means a safe and healthy working environment free of forced labor. Throughout the trading chain, Members cultivate workplaces that empower people to participate in the decisions that affect them. Members seek to eliminate discrimination based on race, caste, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, union membership, political affiliation, age, marital, or health status. Members support workplaces free from physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal harassment or abuse.
Ensure the Rights of Children
Fair Trade means that all children have the right to security, education, and play. Throughout the trading chain, Members respect and support the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as local laws and social norms. Members disclose the involvement of children in production. Members do not support child trafficking and exploitative child labor.
Cultivate Environmental Stewardship
Fair Trade seeks to offer current generations the ability to meet their needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Members actively consider the implications of their decisions on the environment and promote the responsible stewardship of resources. Members reduce, reuse, reclaim, and recycle materials wherever possible. They encourage environmentally sustainable practices throughout the entire trading chain.
Respect Cultural Identity
Fair Trade celebrates the cultural diversity of communities, while seeking to create positive and equitable change. Members respect the development of products, practices, and organizational models based on indigenous traditions and techniques to sustain cultures and revitalize traditions. Members balance market needs with producers’ cultural heritage.
What we want to go an step beyond....
Beyond Fair Trade !
What do we mean when we say that we go Beyond Fair Trade? Simply put, we deliver quality products directly to our customers. More than simply a handcrafted keepsake, what we’re providing is a direct link to our culture, traditions, and the individual stores of the artisans who’ve created them. We’re proud to say that when you purchase a product on our website, there is no middleman; there are no unnecessary fees or blockades that stand in the way in offering your payment to the artisans that craft our products. Ours is a unique system which is facilitated by our personal connection to our makers. We take care of each step of the transaction, import, and shipping to you… so you can trust that your payment helps enrich the community of the artisans who made your goods. Large associations that regulate Fair Trade have good intentions, and admirable principles. Creating opportunities for economically marginalized artisans in rural communities of South America is something that we are passionate about. Our work is primarily a way to spread the reach of these local artisans past their community and into the United States, and to your doorstep. The prices that we offer are reasonably set, unlike outside institution which stand to make a large profit. Our intention is to fund our artisans, promote community, and continue to keep beautiful hand crafted products available to you. Fair Trade vendors work to bring unique and high quality goods to customers, while also developing rural communities abroad. This is an endeavor we wholly support and are passionate about. We commit ourselves to the principles of Fair Trade, while also working within a niche market only possible from the close bonds we share with the artisans of Peru. We hold ourselves to principles that are Beyond Fair Trade, by filling in those gaps. Our relationship with our artisans is much closer. Most of our artisans have existing ties and family bonds with our organization that have lasted for decades. As Peruvians, we all share the same language and culture. We share a history with our artisans, and have the same story. Having experienced the concerns and struggles of economically poor rural areas of Peru first hand, we were driven to foster a direct connection between the artisan and the customer…. regardless of the geographical distance. For decades handcrafted artisans in Peru have sold their goods to support they families. Many of those products take time to produce, and coincide with seasonal harvests, requiring the help of their community. Those artisans are part of our family, our community. Inspired Peru provides 100% Peruvian goods to you, directly from the hands that created them. We welcome you to share in our family’s history, and learn our stories.