You see it on numerous food labels at the store, a little white sticker that seems to add a little more credibility to the product you may be about to buy. “Fair Trade” and “Fairly Traded” products are becoming all the rage for consumers who can afford to pay the extra dollars and cents. But what exactly are you getting from a “Fair Trade” product that you couldn’t get from a brand such as Folgers or Hershey’s?

I’m a person who doesn’t learn too well from statistics and analytical language, so instead of giving you the academic low down behind fair trade, I’m going to tell you a story.

Eduardo is a coffee farmer from Nicaragua, whose only source of income is from the green coffee beans he produces for Folgers, the coffee company he’s contracted with to receive less than fifty cents for every pound of raw coffee. While Folgers gets to pocket 1 Billion dollars in yearly sales, Eduardo must make do with less than 300 dollars. The way that Folgers cares for the quality of it’s coffee is also noteworthy, with beans that are poorly sorted and mass roasted, then left in storage houses to grow stale before getting shipped off to North American grocery shelves.

Ruben is a farmer in Guatemala, directly contracted with a fair trade certified coffee business that pays him 3 dollars a pound for top quality coffee beans. He is part of a local co-op supported by the company, allowing for him and other farmers to have democratic rule over their farming practices, and gives them resources to promote community development, such as schools and hospitals. The coffee that is finally produced and packaged by this company is sorted with care, making sure that no withered or broken beans taint the aromatic quality of the final product. The beans then get roasted in small batches that are carefully tended to roasted perfection. The end result is a well supported farmer, an empowered community, and one heck of a good cup of coffee.

The flame of Fair Trade is quickly becoming a wild fire in international business, with certification now being extended to a wide variety of products. Though prices and trade procedures vary, the common thread among all Fair Trade businesses is that we desire for farmers and crafts people to have their quality work recognized and paid for what it is. Exploitation does little more than rob workers of motivation and livelihoods. Eduardo and his family deserve more. Nepali crafts people deserve more.

So when you go shopping next, whether in the store or online, be on the look out for that cool little symbol that gives you the promise of purchasing justice along with a high quality product. In my personal opinion, the extra dollars are well worth the economic justice you’re buying for the person behind the product.

My passion for fair trade started even before I knew the term. My desire to obtain just wages for hard workers began when I saw an orange tiger.

During the years I was growing up in China, I would often peruse the market streets for little odds and ends. One particular day I found myself window shopping in the open market, when I stumbled upon an old woman sitting on a little fold out stool. She looked haggard and tired, worn from a life of physical toil. But despite what I imagined her life to have been and currently be, I noticed the items she was proffering to passers by who might just take a quick glance at her craft. They were beautiful, intricately detailed Chinese tigers.

These tigers are a traditional Chinese item, thought to bring good luck and power to a household. Their short stubby bodies were made of bright orange fabric, with artistic touches of floral patterns on the side, bright little button eyes, and carefully threaded faces. Each tiger she offered was magically different in it’s detailing, each one offering a special personality and beauty to the buyer.

Despite the crafted beauty of these little tigers, I’m normally not much of a souvenir person. But as I gazed at this tired, plain looking old woman, sitting on her ragged fold out bench amongst a bright sea of beautiful orange tigers, the friend I was shopping with nudged me. “I just read an article in the newspaper about this woman. Her whole entire family has just abandoned her. She’s been left out in the cold to fend for herself, and these tigers are her only source of income”. I felt an urgent hand tug at my heart, and I kneeled on the ground asking how much the tigers cost. 35 yuan (5 dollars) she said in a quiet raspy voice. I fumbled for the bills, and picked out my very own Chinese tiger.

To this day, that orange tiger sits in my living room, forever reminding me that behind every item you touch, there’s a human being with a life story.

A Vision of Choice

You see a picture, of a girl in tattered clothes, sitting cross-legged on a dusty floor, gazing up at you with large eyes that seem to exude the suffering of her family and people.

When we view such poignant images of humanity, an automatic emotional response often embodies a mix of pity and superiority. We feel sorry for that poor little girl, who seems devoid of any opportunity to live beyond her poverty. Some may even respond to such a picture with a “Ha”, and scratch their heads wondering why it is the third world just never seems to be able to get it together.

But what if I described that girl as powerful. Someone who has the intelligence and motivation to go on to become a doctor or lawyer. Someone who has the resilience to defy the odds of poverty that are stacked against her. It’s often hard to see though isn’t it, when the tattered clothes and impoverished surroundings seem to speak a lot louder than seemingly invisible potential.

As easy as it is to focus on the pitiable aspects of people caught in poverty’s vicious cycle, we have a choice. We can see those people as individuals who lack all productive capacity save for reaping from our good will handouts. Or we can choose to see those people as capable enough to climb educational ladders and executive structures, if they’re just given the opportunities to develop themselves and do so.

Instead of seeing a pitiable little girl with nothing to live for except good will handouts, I hope you’ll take a second look, and realize, that such a girl is powerful. She just needs to be given opportunities to develop her intellect and capabilities.

If you want to learn more about how you can play a part in empowering impoverished individuals, you can leave a comment in the space below.

Hi everyone, my name is Monica Lackman, and I’m the new Communications and Marketing Coordinator for Royal Bhaktapur’s U.S. venture. I’ve been mandated with the creative maintenance of this blog, and thus, over the next few months, you’ll hopefully be following along with the topics I hope to cover regarding Royal Bhaktapur as a fair trade oriented business, and as an advocate for poverty alleviation and economic justice.

Royal Bhaktapur was created not for the sake of making personal profit, but  for the sake of giving skilled craftspeople in Nepal an economic outlet through which to generate much needed income. You’ll hear hot topics these days about how we need to “fight against poverty”, and “promote global justice”, but what do such inspiring but ambiguous statements actually mean?

To an Economist, alleviating poverty means maximizing a country’s GDP and export potential. To an Education specialist, helping people out of poverty means providing them with quality schooling. Poverty is a nebulous issue, with numerous factors fueling it’s perpetuation throughout the world. The complications involved with Poverty’s existence make trying to find a “solution” that much more difficult and intangible.

Business is coming to play an increasingly prominent role in how people approach poverty. The Fair Trade movement focuses on working to facilitate locally based ways to provide financial freedom, through methods like business generation, vocational training and micro-enterprise.

Poverty is an issue that will be ever present on earth as long as there are imperfect humans who populate it. However, poverty alleviation can become a very realistic achievement if it is thought of in small ways through one community, one family and one person at a time.

Through the business empowering movements that promote concepts such as “Business as Mission” and “Fair Trade”, alleviating poverty around the world is becoming increasingly feasible. When people are provided with the tools needed to generate independent sources of income, business becomes a fantastic catalyst that affects numerous other threads in the fabric of our global community.

So far the new years resolutions for 2010 for updating the blog. There is a lot going on at Royal Bhaktapur. Especially the website is currently having a major overhaul in the system for new improvements, faster performance and higher user friendliness. In the coming days the site might have some flaws, but we’re doing our utmost best to keep this as minimum as possible.
Next month we’re expecting a new shipment with Bamboo Pashmina’s. Made of sustainable Bamboo material with the mix of regular wool. So stay tuned.

In the meanwhile as 2010 has just started, we’re having an interesting sale for our customers. All of our old label stock has to be sold as we’re focusing on our private label. This means great discounts, and a very luxury Pashmina scarf or shawl for a bargain. Sale ends as soon stock runs out. GONE = Gone

Check out the clearance section here.

Note: Don’t forget to register for an account to collect reward points which will give discounts on future purchases

Customer Reviews

We’re excited to announce that we just launched our new Revamped Customer Reviews on our online Store. With many lots of exiting new features, new enhanced security, higher level of moderation processing and more trustworthy reviews.

Het begon als een leuk project om ervaring op te doen in ondernemen en tegelijkertijd idealen te verwezenlijken. Inmiddels verkoopt het bedrijf van Arcadiaan Radboud Buitenrust Hettema en zijn studerende zoon Niki wereldwijd handgemaakte kwaliteitsproducten uit Nepal. ‘Royal Bhaktapur’ heet het familiebedrijf. Vader en zoon runnen het in hun vrije tijd. Het is hun droom om er – als het even kan – groot mee te worden.

Official website: http://www.arcadis.nl

Transform the life of others and you”ll be transformed. Together we can work on a concept to end poverty and grow a sustainable development. Royal Bhaktapur, live from the conference in Muskegon, Michigan, United States.

We’re getting this question quite often. Actually the ways you can wear your Pashmina are endless. Depending on your clothing style, let it be a regular shirt, a suit, a dress or jacket there are always different ways to wear your Pashmina in an elegant style.

Text describes something briefly. A photo says more than thousands words. A short video summarizes it all. Watch this youtube video made by Travelista Fashion which shows you a few examples how to wear a Pashmina of 70x200cm.

Life has been like a roller-coaster these last years. And the ride is far from over. It has been a long time since I’ve been able to update the blog. Lots and lots of things happened in the time since the last post on this blog. But from now on I hope to keep the blog updated with interesting articles about Pashminas, Cashmere, handicrafts, other products from Nepal and news items. And of course what is going on at Royal Bhaktapur.

Royal Bhaktapur has been growing, and fast! When it started in 2005 from a simple project idea next to my studies of International Business and Management Studies (IBMS) it soon became clear that this wasn’t going to be just a project, there was a mission behind it. For me the main goal was gaining more experience in business and entrepreneurship while at the same time being able to start making a difference by helping people getting a fair income and making their lives better in Nepal.
The company has given me many new insides, unique experiences and pleasure. Although entrepreneurship is an extremely challenging job it gives a lot of work too! Working sometimes up to 80 hours a week isn’t an exception. And at the same time you’re having a full time study next to it. Sounds almost impossible, but if you can manage to have a good planning it is manageable.

Most of the people are actually still thinking I’m in the Netherlands. Actually thats not really true anymore as I haven’t been there for almost a full year now! Ah well just a quick stopover of 4 days in the Netherlands, and another 4 days in Germany and Austria. Thats the perfect thing about my job, being able to work and run the business from simply anywhere in the world with a phone, notebook and internet connection.
Only you’re not always being able to meet your clients in person, which is a disadvantage. But therefore you have an excellent team behind you who can take over the necessary tasks.

I just came back from a semester study abroad in the United States at Calvin College. It was an amazing semester. Not only interesting to see how business in America goes but also researching companies like Gentex, SteelCase, Herman Miller was an unique opportunity. The U.S. has been a life changing experience for me in many ways. And now again I’m experiencing another life changing experience by working at CHAC Technology in Wenzhou, China. Especially with the Olympics in Beijing coming up, its a blessing to be here. China is absolutely an unique country, with many different sides. Last week I got the unique privilege with Royal Bhaktapur to visit the worlds biggest trade exhibition in Guangzhou, the Canton Fair. Suppliers of all over the world are here to show their products, exchange business contacts and get new contracts. Surprisingly there were many manufactures from inner Mongolia offering Cashmere and Pashmina shawls. However not handmade but produced in mass quantities by heavy machinery. Although from the outside these shawls were looking pretty similar to the real Pashminas, there were still some important differences to take into consideration. In the next posts I will got more in depth about the visit at the Canton Fair and these machine produced Pashminas.

At the moment I’m working with my designer Padraic on a complete new website. Yes, Royal Bhaktapur is going to get another make over.
With all the comments and feedback we got from our customers these last two years we’ve been able to keep improving our website on every detail. And this new website is going to be something. I’m really excited, and hope you are going to be excited too with a complete new shopping experience at our site. If everything goes well we hope to have everything finished by the end of next month.

We are busy trying to make a good list of charities to support in the coming years. Main charities will include to give children a future by sending them to school and fighting poverty. If you have suggestions for other charities, feel free to let us know.