Free coffee and sweet treats tempted passers-by to stop and linger outside Raglan’s Trade Aid shop one recent Saturday – and in the process become part of a double celebration
The annual World Fair Trade Day traditionally falls on the second Saturday of May, but this time around it was also the 50th birthday of the unique organisation that runs New Zealand’s network of Trade Aid shops.
“We’re all about creating a world where trade is fair for all,” explains Whaingaroa Trade Aid Trust chair Meredith Youngson.
That is achieved by supporting artisans with a fair price for products like coffee beans
and myriad sustainably produced craft items, along with educating local communities, she says.
While Trade Aid Whaingaroa has been doing business successfully on Bow St for 30-something years now, it’s a full half century since its umbrella New Zealand organisation started out.
And it’s all because a young couple came back from Nepal with exotic carpets to sell, Meredith says, and saw a great opportunity to support artisans in other countries.
A social enterprise was born – before anyone knew what a social enterprise was.
Trade Aid is now the country’s biggest importer of coffee beans, sourcing them from small-scale producers in nine different countries and selling them in New Zealand to commercial coffee roasters.
