Traidcraft

Traidcraft is a leading fair trade organisation, formed in 1979 to fight global poverty through developing fair trade. Although Christian in origin, it is not an evangelical organisation and counts all sorts of faith groups among its suppliers.
It operates a number of its own shops, as well as operating through representatives (many, but not all, church-​based) and through its on-​line website.
We use Traidcraft for all sorts of products, including breakfast cereal, coffee, tea, sugar, honey, chocolate, cocoa, toilet rolls and greetings cards. We also buy sundry household items from them: table cloths, some pottery and towels. Many of the items are made from recycled materials and many food items are also organic.
Like all such organisations, some things appeal from the catalogues and some don’t, and you have to decide whether you like it or not: I’ve never been terribly into buying clothes from such organisations — not to my taste, generally, although the styling has generally become more mainstream over the years — and of course items like fair-​trade tea and coffee can easily be bought from supermarkets these days. But all told, a major part of our weekly shop goes their way.
As well as a trading company, they have a charitable development arm, which aims to help small, fair-​trade producers and co-​operatives in developing countries to improve the quality and marketability of their products, and then find them appropriate outlets in the UK and other countries: in other words, to make them more able to stand on their own feet and achieve higher prices.