The global reces­sion hasn’t avoided fair trade busi­nesses. World of Good has had to cut back on staff here in US, but they have avoided any cut­backs in pur­chas­ing from their arti­sans across the globe.

From the San Fran­cisco Chron­i­cle, reporter Car­olyn Said has this pro­file on the fair trade company.

For Indian bead­work­ers who craft intri­cate neck­laces and ear­rings, Hait­ian met­al­work­ers who recy­cle oil drums into sculp­tures, and Guatemalan weavers who make rainbow-hued tapes­tries, the eco­nomic down­turn that has choked off con­sumer spend­ing could mean a dev­as­tat­ing plunge back into poverty.

Priya Haji is deter­mined to stop that from happening.

As CEO and co-founder of World of Good, a small Emeryville com­pany that cre­ates mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ties for crafts­peo­ple from the devel­op­ing world, Haji has acted nim­bly to respond to the reces­sion with­out slash­ing the orders her far-flung work­ers depend on.

“Other retail­ers can quickly turn off their fac­to­ries to reduce excess inven­to­ries, but fair traders can’t do that,” said Haji, 39, whose calm demeanor belies her fer­vent sense of pur­pose. “We have a com­mit­ment to pay a fair price and fair wages to pro­ducer groups.”

Thou­sands of arti­sans in 70 coun­tries from Afghanistan to Zim­babwe fab­ri­cate the hand­made jew­elry, cloth­ing, house­wares and art that World of Good sells online and in stores.
…

Don Shaf­fer, CEO of San Francisco’s RSF Social Finance, which pro­vides financ­ing to World of Good, said he appre­ci­ated that Haji refused to cut cor­ners at the expense of her arti­sans. RSF expanded its loans to the com­pany so it could con­tinue to pre­fi­nance its inventory.

“They have stuck to their com­mit­ments through good times and bad, which a lot of other folks wouldn’t do,” he said. “World of Good is a shin­ing exam­ple of a fair-trade orga­ni­za­tion func­tion­ing at a very high level as a busi­ness and hav­ing a tremen­dous social impact.”

Some cop­ing mech­a­nisms have been painful. Haji said she had to trim staff, bring­ing the Emeryville work­force to its cur­rent size of about 25 people.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/09/MNE71AF93P.DTL#ixzz0WNHJxzJW

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