Fair trade producers eye growing global demand

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu-based fair trade producers continue to expect orders from abroad especially that more and more consumers from around the world are already grasping the concept of the fair trade movement.

Although the concept is not yet totally embraced here in the country and specifically here in Cebu, Cebu-based fair trade producers continue to be strong in their efforts to entice more orders from abroad, said Geraldine Labradores of the Southern Partners and Fair Trade Corporation (SPFTC).

She said that right now, eco bags, which is their main product has been getting huge demand from abroad along with the growing awareness on caring for the environment.

Labradores said that they will be capitalizing on this growing demand and right now, they are under negotiations with three international buyers from Asia and the United States of America to supply around 10, 000 eco bags.

“We hope this will soon materialize so that our women sewers and weavers from communities will get alternative livelihood opportunities. If we will be successful in our negotiations, we will have orders every two months or quarterly,” she said

Labradores said that due to the global financial crisis, there has been a downtrend of demand in the international level for their fashion accessories and crafts which has affected their members as the decline of their sales have reached to around 50 percent.

“The main big buyer of our crafts is the US market so there has really been a huge decline for our sales. We do hope we can distribute and establish a supply chain from among our members so that we can cope if ever we can get big demands from other new clients,” said Labradores.

She said that last year, they landed a big deal with a Singaporean buyer and so this year they are hoping to explore more markets in Asia as well as intensify the hold of the domestic market.

She said that usually, the problem of fair trade producers are the lack of opportunity due to a limited access to the market both international and domestic.

“The capacity and skills of our weavers and sewers are there but the main problem is the opportunity and the market access for our products,” said Labradores.

She said that as fair trade products gain more access to both the domestic and international market, more women from the different communities in Cebu will earn more livelihood opportunities.

Currently, about nine communities within the province benefit from the growing demand of fair trade products such as bags, jewelries, handicrafts and processed food items which include: Talisay, Calamba Quijano, Carcar, Minglanilla, Bacayan, Dumanjug, and Danao, said Labradores.

She said since fair trade producers still lack the capacity to cope with huge orders; they have decided to consolidate their efforts among their supply chain and share big volume orders.

“We hope we can work on improving our efficiencies so that we can upscale our product quality and improve our volume capacity. If we producers can consolidate our efforts and attain a systematic supply process then we can already easily deliver out big volumes,” said Labradores.

She said that they will also reach out to more women in other communities to expand their supply chain and grow their producer group.

Fair trade producers are also trying to reach out to more people to join in the fair trade movement and are still strongly encouraging more consumers to patronize fair trade products. —Rhia de Pablo