Become a Fair Trader - in your community or workplace
Being a ‘Fair Trader’ is about being a part of the trickle-down of the Fair Trade concept into practice in local communities and workplaces.
Traidcraft Fair Traders contribute towards extending the benefits of fair trade for all by:
- Passing catalogues to family and friends and collecting orders
- Selling fair trade products from stalls at events or in the workplace
- Organising parties at home
There are 5,000 Fair Traders operating in the U.K., providing an extensive and friendly support network that can give you all the advice you’ll need to help you get started.
To learn more about how you could be a Fair Trader, go here.
And then, if you’re interested in becoming a Fair Trader, send an email here, or complete the online registration form here.
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As a Generous member, you can leave comments or tips below each action. The difference between a comment and a tip is that a tip is really advice (or wisdom, as we like to call it). A comment is just an observation.
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02 Jan 2006
I’m looking at becoming a Fair Trader, although storage space at home is at a bit of a premium. However, coming up to Christmas, I hold jewellery parties for two charities – Saltmine Trust (www.saltmine.org) and Open Doors UK (www.opendoorsuk.org).
With Saltmine, they have taught unemployed and disabled people in Bulgaria (where there is up to 80% unemployment outside of the main cities)how to make lovely jewellery. It is imported into the UK and you can then ask for a pack to sell via church etc. If you’re interested, ring Saltmine on 01384 454800 and ask to speak to Chris Clarke.
With Open Doors, the wives of some wrongfully imprisoned Christians in Mexico make beautiful friendship bands and bags to help them feed their families whilst their husbands are in jail. You can find out more by emailing Jenny Wales of Open Doors at jennyw@opendoorsuk.org.
The jewellery is unusual, reasonably priced, and fairly traded – ALL the proceeds go back to the communities that made each piece.
It sells best in the period leading up to Christmas – I hold jewellery parties at different homes round our village.
13 Jan 2006
My husband and I are exploring the prospectof becoming a rep for Triadcraft. I will allow us to spread the word of fairtrade and also be able to promote fairtrade products. It will only generate profit for the church. We will have the support of the Traid craft shop in Truro too.
13 Jan 2006
My husband and I are exploring the prospectof becoming a rep for Triadcraft. I will allow us to spread the word of fairtrade and also be able to promote fairtrade products. It will only generate profit for the church. We will have the support of the Traid craft shop in Truro too.
AF , 12 Feb 2006
Technically helping out our fairtraders out at church setting up, selling , putting stuff away.
Godalming, GB , 15 Feb 2006
I’ve been selling Traidcraft goods at the fortnightly lunch club in my church for several years. Not sure how long I shall continue to do so, though.
18 Feb 2006
I’ve been a Fair Trader for about 11 years now and enjoy it so much that six years ago when I saw a job advertised working full-time for Traidcraft (in the PR department) I applied, so now I do both! I am very fortunate in that my job allows me to travel for Traicraft and get to meet producers. So I have to say a really big thank you to everyone who runs Traidcraft stalls, has a dining room full of boxes (like me) or circulates the catalogues. You REALLY are making a difference. A lot of the fair trade products still aren’t available in the shops, for instance, crafts, so running a Traidcraft stall is a really important way of connecting producers and customers. In Malawi I met villagers who had fresh water for the first time because of the premium on fair trade sugar and in Chile I met women who make crafts and kept telling me, we can’t believe that people in the UK give up their time to help us in this way.
taunton, GB , 19 Feb 2006
I have just signed up (with a friend at church) to be a Traidcraft fair trader, and we are awaiting our 1st order with much anticipation! We hope to do stalls ‘out there’ in our local community, and not just at church, but we’ll see. It’s handy that we’ve got Fair Trade fortnight coming up – we are already booked to do a stall in our church coffee shop, which is in the town centre!
01 Apr 2006
I am a fair trader, selling Traidcraft goods. I also aim to buy at least one fairly traded product each time I shop in the supermarket,& have recently registered to become a Traidcraft speaker.
AF , 15 Apr 2006
Still helping but as it is on a regular basis and sometimes when the fair traders are away I reckon this is a done action :-)
20 May 2006
I started work at an FE college recently and I noticed that the tea and coffee was not fairtrade. At my induction day I suggested to a higher authority that we should be promoting fairtrade to the 16-19 year olds. Since then they have introduced fairtrade tea and coffee at staff meetings. Still no fair trade in the canteen though as it is contracted out.
taunton, GB , 23 May 2006
Just an update (continuing from my comment above)... my friend and I have now held several Traidcraft stalls in our town hall, and are booked to be there on the 1st Sat of every month! We have just signed up as Tearcraft fairtraders also, so that will add to our stock. We are in the process of doing up ‘packages’ for our 7 local churches, to encourage them to buy from us stuff for their church kitchen, for their youth group tuck shop, etc (inc samples!). We’re really enjoying ourselves, and being generous at the same time… we are a bit out of pocket so far, but that will change in time, hopefully!
South London, GB , 06 Sep 2006
We’ve recently done this at the office which we share with a few other charities who are thinking about doing the same. It takes a while to work out what of the stuff you usually use for meetings and daily drinks is available but once you have it’s easy. And you don’t have to go to shops as it all gets delivered to your door. Fantastic!
Maidenhead, GB , 24 Sep 2006
I have been a fair trader for almost a year now – running a stall at church. It has been more successful than I ever imagined and people have really taken to it – I get into trouble if I miss a Sunday as the congregation doesn’t get a yoghurt raisin fix!
A benefit I hadn’t expected is that I’m normally the person who sits alone at church and doesn’t talk to people much after the service. Standing at the stall I find that I have conversations with people I hadn’t spoken to in 2 years at the church, and have started to find it a lot easier to chat to people. Also, newcomers often gravitate to the Traidcraft stall as it’s an easy ‘in’ to conversation with someone you don’t know.
We’re hoping to have a cheese and wine evening and get a bunch of the craft products from a local Fair Trader who does sale or return (we tend to just stock the food) so that should be fun in the run up to Christmas.
GB , 26 Sep 2006
We became fairtraders as our church stall couldn’t keep up the supply of raisins and sultanas to feed our (then) small children so we bought in bulk for our own use! We have a large metal cupboard in our garage with our supplies in, which gets raided by friends and family. I also supply some things to my surgery, but I have failed to convert the coffee drinkers at work!
04 Oct 2006
I sell Tearcraft stuff at my church and hope also to start running a Traidcraft stall once a month. It’s really easy to do; I just need to be careful that I don’t buy too much myself!
AF , 03 Feb 2007
Don’t forget Fairtrade Fortnight is coming up. Late Feb – 11th March ‘07
Why not have Fairtrade Tea Party or a recipe swapping session.
Dudley, GB , 12 Oct 2007
We sell only Fairly Traded Clothing on our website www.aidbytrade.co.uk and we are a member of BAFTS our suppliers are all BAFTS Registered importers. We also have a regular stall at Stourbridge Craft/Farmers market on 1st & 3rd Saturday of each month. In addition we do also host Clothing Parties …. A percentage of our profit each month enables us to sponsor children in Nepal … We currently sponsor 6 visit www.himalayanlearning.org where just £20.00 helps a child with the following • School fees • Uniform & footwear • Books & stationary • Bags & underwear • Extreme weather kit • Health kit • Dental kit • Nutritional help • Child Fund schemes • Letters to you!
Bicester, GB , 19 Nov 2007
My best friend is a Fair Trader and I’m a Tearcraft rep so between us we’re trying to promote as many fairtrade things as we can. Coming up to Christmas we’ve done the usual church things but also some jewellery parties and a “ladies pamper night” at a local school.
Deepest, darkest Devon, GB , 22 Jun 2009
I’m trying to set up a Suma co-operative at work; so far, not huge interest, but I’m hoping that getting included in the newsletter (site-wide, to about 800 people) should help!