Fair trade group inks pact with souvenir retail chain

Sun.Star Cebu <> Friday, May 15, 2009

BY NANCY R. CUDIS, Sun.Star Staff Reporter

WITH the softening of international markets, fair trade organizations are trying to tap the domestic market and tourists for food and non-food items made by small-time local producers.

The Southern Partner and Fair Trade Corp. (SPFTC) recently entered into an understanding with Islands Souvenirs to supply the company’s retail arm with fair trade products.

More than two weeks ago, the Islands Pasalubong Center in Lapu-Lapu City started displaying some of these items, like delicacies, accessories and recycled bags made of tin foil.

Although he still have to determine the sales performance of these fair trade products at the end of the month, Islands Souvenirs founder and president Jay Aldeguer disclosed that he has been receiving positive feedback from customers.

The company has a merchandising team that evaluates the quality of products to be displayed in its stores.

Tweaking

While he lauded the skills of the micro-entrepreneurs, Aldeguer observed that several fair trade items need a “little more tweaking” to improve their quality and be able to take off in the market.

“(Fair trade) producers need to be competent, professional and strategic in pricing to be able to supply the demand and ensure quality of their products in order to compete in both domestic and international markets,” he said in an interview during a fair trade forum at St. Theresa’s College last Monday.

He considered the Islands Pasalubong Center a venue for micro-entrepreneurs to showcase and grow their businesses—a manifestation of the company’s corporate social responsibility focused on tourism and entrepreneurship.

“We support the advocacy of pushing fair trade products in Cebu and in the country. The company also shares the same values with (fair trade) organizations, such as transforming communities (through entrepreneurship) and getting them involved in the tourism trade,” he said.

Islands Souvenirs, he said, is open to the idea of displaying fair trade products in all its stores. He added that the company is also willing to conduct a “full-blown campaign” to promote the products once there is a steady supply of quality items from fair trade producers.

“It is a matter of sustaining their production and their passion,” Al-deguer said.

Geraldine Labradores, SPFTC executive director, said that partnerships with local companies, like Islands Souvenirs, help members cope with the global financial crisis that caused the volume of orders from buyers abroad to decline.

The SPFTC, which serves as a processing and trading facility of people and non-government organizations in Central Visayas and a direct link between producers and consumers, is eyeing more businesses based in the country where fair trade producers could market their items, including two travel and tour groups, an export company and big supermarket chains.

Fair trade is a global movement that aims to give just value and market access to the products of small-time producers. Fair trade products are made in environmentally-, economically- and socially-responsible conditions.

Filed under: Business, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Export Sector, Small and Medium Enterprises