Features
Fair trade not aid
Oxfam Ireland's four fair-trade shops sell food and handicraft products that originate in 32 countries around the world and the woman in charge of deciding what goes on their shelves is Margaret Carr. With nearly 20 years of experience buying and merchandising in large department stores in the US, she was the ideal woman for the job of Fair Trade Manager at Oxfam Ireland. Her job involves much travel and shopping - but with a difference. "I get involved at every stage of the product from the very beginning to the very end," says Carr. " The best part is that I can go home at night and know that I'm doing retail, which is what I'm good at, not for some company's stock holders, but for the producers."
Producing for a market
Carr has been in her current position for almost ten years and is keen to stress that the ethos of Oxfam is not simply to act as a provider of charity to the suppliers and artisans whose products they sell. "The products have to sell, we don't buy products from producers just to be nice to them," she says. "We buy them because they will sell to the Irish consumer and when they sell, we can buy more. It's about making the producer more commercially viable."
In order to ensure that the products are commercially viable, Carr spends a lot of time researching the Irish market and looking at consumer trends. "I spend a lot of time shopping," she says. "It's about noticing - noticing what is in the shops, on the internet, what people are wearing, trends in women's and homes magazines. We are not the 'trendiest' of organisations - so it's about interpreting those trends for what our producers can do and showcasing our producers' skills."
Organic premium
Oxfam Ireland's most popular fair-trade and organic products are food stuffs such as coffee, tea and chocolate and artisan items, handmade by small producers. For the producers of organic products the benefits are manifold, according to Carr. Not only is the farmer paid a premium for organically certified produce but there are greater financial benefits. "Looking at the most widely recognised fair-trade and organic product, coffee, many of our producers want to move to organic for the logical reason they get paid more. There is a premium for certified organic coffee which helps the producer and in many cases it is not more expensive for them to produce. They're not paying for chemical input such as fertilisers, certainly they have to take more personal care - it is more labour intensive, but that is something they have. What they don't have is cash, so it is a win-win situation."
According to Carr the demand worldwide for organic products is growing, so once the farmer gets organic certification there is an added market. The main difficulty that the farmer faces is that it can often take a long time to become certified and the in-between period can be difficult for the farmer. In terms of the Oxfam Ireland customer, popular items include organic fair-trade cotton t-shirts, homewares and the new organic BioEtic skincare range; however the most popular organic fair-trade item is definitely chocolate. "They say that the Irish customer eats more chocolate per capita than any where else in the world," she jokes. "And certainly if our sales are anything to go by they eat a lot of chocolate! We also have organic coffee and tea and a new range of organic honeys from Mexico and Chile which have a very different taste to a blended honey in that they are single location honeys."
Changing market
Over the past nine years Carr has noticed a change in the consumer patterns of Irish customers. A penchant for "ethnic" products such as fertility dolls and masks has made way for a new more modern interpretation of design. This has resulted in a change for the artisan manufacturers. "African masks, for example, don't sell for us anymore so we work with the same producers, utilising their skills but with a more modern interpretation." Fair-trade offers a higher market price than the word market price in terms of commodities that are traded on the open market; however Carr says that there is a great deal more to fair-trade than this. "Our handicraft producers will often say that that is not what matters most to them at all - what is most important is that when I make a commitment to producers I make a long-term commitment to helping them develop their product. We also pre-pay 50 percent of the cost of our orders in advance so that the producers do not have to borrow money for raw materials. The interest rates for small farmers in developing countries are exorbitant, so even if they're not borrowing a lot of money if they're borrowing it at huge interest rates it really hurts."
High quality goods
Carr says that fair-trade prices in Oxfam Ireland are set in line with competition and in line with a realistic selling price. "I am not interested in making money on the back of poor producers," she says. Over the course of her time with Oxfam the quality as well as the quantity of organic and fair-trade produce has grown. "Nine years ago you were paying over the odds for fair-trade coffee and everything else, now the quality has improved and I will put up fair-trade coffee against any other commercial brand of coffee. Producers have worked very hard in terms of quality - they don't want to be treated as charity cases, they want to run a proper business themselves, I and they do not want people to buy things because they feel sorry for the producer, they are proud of what they make."
Personally for Carr the job with Oxfam Ireland continues to be a rewarding and pleasurable one - one which allows her to sleep soundly at night. "I have been so lucky to meet producers all over the world who have always made me feel welcome. The situations that people find themselves in are frankly appalling and they go about their work and have wonderful families and wonderful communities despite things that we would be appalled at. And they do it all with a smile," she says. "I would like people to know that at this time of year regardless of how much people have to spend there is something in an Oxfam shop - a gift of real value - unique, handmade and that provides value to the person who made it as well as the person you're giving it to."
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