Fair Trade Policy

why is fair trade so important?

Our packing team lovingly packing products in a sustainable and eco-friendly way!

All of the products on our website are either Fairly Traded, Ethically Traded, or Eco-Friendly Products.

How do we define Fair Trade Products?

Iguazu is dedicated to bringing you, our customers, the best in fair trade gifts and home wares from around the world. We are proud to support fair trade importers and manufacturers from around the world, who all believe that business can be done in a fair and responsible way. Nearly all of our products that we buy from fair trade importers in the UK are deemed fair trade by the governing body, the British Association of Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS).

This is a fantastic body who allow like minded importers to sell their products to like minded shopkeepers, safe in the knowledge that they all meet the following criteria…

To make sure that the artisans who make the products get a fair wage and work in a safe and healthy environment.
To make sure that the community as well as the individual benefits from our trade.
By regularly visiting as many suppliers as possible to check that fair standards are being applied, for instance adequate lighting and ventilation in the workplace.
To guarantee that no child labour occurs and that there is complete gender equality.
To aim to minimise harm to the environment by using sustainable or recycled materials in production, and by shipping goods by sea.

One of our own suppliers happily showing her latest wares!

A lot of this happens through building long term relationships with producers abroad.

When discussing new relationships with producers, the first aim is to work out a fair price, and then stick with it.

Pay too little and in order to make ends meet our suppliers would have to cut back on the above criteria to make a profit; pay too much and the product becomes too expensive to retail and they cannot be sold, ending the supply chain.

By working together retailers, suppliers and manufacturers can work out the best price for any given product, allowing the maximum profit for each part of the supply chain and without being too expensive for you, our customers.

We buy from developing nations who do not have the strict laws we do here in Europe. This not only gives manufacturers abroad the chance to make a real difference to their local communities but also shows other manufacturers that there is another way out there that works – hopefully over time this will change the way more and more people do business!

We specialise in handmade items made from locally produced and/or recycled materials.

Artisans cutting freshly grown lotus leaves to make into art work for us!

This keeps raw material costs to a minimum allowing more of the product’s price to go to the people that matter – those who make it.

It also keeps the product’s environmental impact to a minimum, and being handmade creates many jobs that are usually being lost to machines and computers. This keeps people where they should be, at home with their families rather than being forced to the big cities to find employment.

We believe that the qualities of handmade products made under fair conditions are second to none, and whilst they are never always the same, their differences make the products special and unique. You can’t get that from a machine!

We create long term relationships with our suppliers. By forging lasting relationships that the supply chain can rely upon allows manufacturers to invest in themselves, new ideas, and non profit areas that usually would get lost chasing the bottom line.

This supply allows the basic rights of the people who matter the most, the producers, to come first and not last. Our suppliers ensure that their workers are paid a fair price per piece, which is above the national average, and men and women are paid the same rate. All of this allows the handmade goods, made from skills that have been passed down from generation, to generation, to thrive rather than slowly die out.

So what are Ethically Traded Products?

All the products that we import direct or buy from importers are, at the very least, ethically traded. Some companies are too small to afford the cost of becoming a member of BAFTS, some companies are members of different fair trade affiliates, and some do not feel the need to have their products ratified.

The only difference between these terms are that ethically traded products do not have a defined ‘fair trade premium’ that goes to set up community enhancing projects that you need to, in order to be recognised as a fair trade product. This could be creating a new local school or medical centre to supplying workers with evening meals or even accommodation.

Our own aim with our importing is to help as many small businesses abroad as we can. As they are spread all across Thailand it makes enacting a workable ‘fair trade premium’ very difficult. We are only two years into importing but are working at ways we can make this happen!

why do we sell Eco-Friendly Products as well?

We love the world we live in, and work strenuously to limit the negative impact that doing business creates to the environment. Our packaging is all recyclable, all the way through the supply chain, and everything is shipped by sea. But there are products out there that aim to change the very way we interact with products to try and stop obviously bad practices that the world has fallen into. For many years before the plastic bag tax, we sold Onya bags, which were made from recycled parachutes. These led the way in re-useable shopping bags. Today we sell Eco-Coffee Cups which aim to curb the use of one-cup non-recyclable coffee cups, as well as Bamboo socks which highlight how a raw material can be used for so much more than it historically has been.

Whilst these products may not be fair trade, we believe that their core values put them happily alongside all our handmade, fair trade products, and we are proud to stock them!