{"id":2382,"date":"2018-09-20T20:58:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T20:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/gateshead-fair-trade-pioneer-traidcraft-faces-closure\/"},"modified":"2018-09-20T20:58:41","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T20:58:41","slug":"gateshead-fair-trade-pioneer-traidcraft-faces-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/gateshead-fair-trade-pioneer-traidcraft-faces-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Gateshead fair trade ‘pioneer’ Traidcraft faces closure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"FarmerImage copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Traidcraft was one of the first firms to sell fair trade goods such as coffee
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A firm which calls itself a “pioneer” of fair trade is consulting on closing its trading business.<\/p>\n

Gateshead-based Traidcraft started in 1979 and sells goods sourced in developing countries.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Robin Roth said a drop in the value of the pound and an “incredibly difficult retail background” were affecting Traidcraft’s trading, which employs 68 people.<\/p>\n

The company’s charity arm Traidcraft Exchange will continue unaffected.<\/p>\n

‘Everybody suffering’<\/h2>\n

Mr Roth said while other companies could reduce what they paid to suppliers, Traidcraft continued to pay what it had promised.<\/p>\n

He said that was part of the firm’s ethics.<\/p>\n

“We have a system of beliefs that we do not compromise and we take the consequences of that.<\/p>\n

“There is an incredibly difficult retail background. <\/p>\n

“Everybody is suffering and we are not immune to that,” he said.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Google<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Traidcraft is based in Gateshead where it employs 68 people
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The firm’s 30-day consultation is due to end in October and if closure is agreed, Traidcraft would cease trading in December.<\/p>\n

Mr Roth said the impact on employees and suppliers would “pain me personally and pain us all”.<\/p>\n

But he said it would be “wrong to blame” the firm’s ethics, adding: “We stand by what we do.”<\/p>\n

In statements on its website, Traidcraft said it had “pioneered” the notion of fair trade: “Almost everything we know today as fair trade began with Traidcraft.”<\/p>\n

It sells goods such as chocolate, coffee, tea, honey, rubber and palm oil, which it said was all sourced fairly.<\/p>\n

Traidcraft works with more than 100 producers from 30 countries, with many of its products sold in UK churches and schools.<\/p>\n

Mr Roth said an email address had been set up – lovetraidcraft@traidcraft.co.uk – for people to submit ideas and responses to the consultation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Traidcraft was one of the first firms to sell fair trade goods such as coffee A firm which calls itself a “pioneer” of fair trade is consulting on closing its trading business. Gateshead-based Traidcraft started in 1979 and sells goods sourced in developing countries. Chief executive Robin Roth said … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}