Fair Trade Gifts Which Don't Cost the Earth

In these times of heightened economic, environmental awareness, more and more of us are buying ethically, and look for recycled gifts or fair trade gifts when shopping for presents. There is also a renewed interest in original, handmade gifts, with many people even beating the crunch by creating their own handmade gifts or making recycled gifts themselves.

The Ethics of African Gifts

People are also more interested than before in the ethics surrounding African gifts, whether buying online, from a shop or on their travels, or receiving African gifts themselves. While everyone loves original African gifts, especially ones which are genuine handmade gifts, we are more likely to ask where they came from, whether they are fair trade gifts, and what materials were used.

What Exactly are Fair Trade Gifts?

'Fair trade' is a term that is bandied around, and we've all heard about it, but what exactly are fair trade gifts?

Essentially, fair trade aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a "fair price" to sellers for items such as fair trade jewellery, as well as social and environmental standards concerning the production of a wide variety of goods. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries. At first the movement focused mainly on food and drink items but now this is being extended to fair trade gifts.

Fair Trade Jewellery

Jewellery always makes fantastic presents, so it's no wonder that fair trade jewellery or recycled gifts of jewellery are particularly sought after. The choice of fair trade jewellery now on offer is greater than ever, with items of fair trade jewellery often the best kind of handmade gifts. And the best thing, of course, about these kinds of handmade gifts is that no-one else is going to give the same thing!

Forget the clichéd image of love beads and friendship bracelets - the best fair trade jewellery is simple, beautifully made and extremely stylish. From simple wooden bangles to ethical diamonds, the best fair trade jewellery is worth another look.

Recycled Gifts

The range of recycled gifts on offer has never been greater. Type 'recycled gifts' into Google and you'll be overwhelmed - from photo frames made of confetti to a belt made from a hose to a bowl which was once an old vinyl record. As with fair trade jewellery, forget the clichéd stereotypes - recycled gifts can be stylish as well as environmentally sound. But, when they buy recycled gifts, many people are looking for a robust ethical policy from the person or organisation they are buying from.

In fact, whether you are buying recycled gifts, African gifts, or fair trade gifts, it's good to know that the ethical policy behind your purchases is sound.

Handmade Gifts from Exclusive Roots

One such genuine organisation is Exclusive Roots, the trading arm of the British charity Tabeisa, which helps African communities develop their own businesses or projects.

At Exclusive Roots, we want to combine this strong ethical and fair trade policy with offering fantastic handmade gifts you'll love. We only operate with fair trade jewellery and a range of other fair trade gifts, from bags to homeware and body products.

All our products are African gifts in that they are sourced from poor African communities, mostly in South Africa. But they are also African gifts in that they give to Africa as well, with all our profits go to support Tabeisa.

We only sell handmade gifts, and those which have been ethically traded, at a fair price to the original seller. We admit it ourselves - dealing only in fair trade gifts takes a lot of our effort. Many of the businesses we work with are sole traders who work long hours to craft their handmade gifts. This makes it hard for them to achieve official Fair Trade accreditation. But we will not buy African gifts from any business whose working practices do not follow the principles of fair trade.

We have a shop in Hatton, Warwickshire, where we have many products which are exclusive to the shop and not available online. A wide range of our African gifts, however, is available through our website, and we can no deliver anywhere in the world. We can even offer free UK postage and packing when you spend £40 or more on our fair trade gifts.

If it's fair trade jewellery you're after, check out our wide range of necklaces, earrings and other accessories. You'll be bound to find something you can't wait to have, or which you know will make an ideal present for someone.

But, as well as our striking selection of fair trade jewellery, you'll love all the other fair trade gifts we have on offer - from toys to vases to packs of fairly traded food and a wide range of recycled gifts.

Indeed, you may well be so taken with our range of handmade gifts that you want to order wholesale for your own business! If so, we'd be delighted to discuss your order. For these kinds of orders, we have a minimum order of £100 and for orders over £200 we provide free postage and packing.

Unfortunately, some sellers of recycled gifts or fair trade products don't have an ethical policy which as strong as ours, whatever they may claim.

At Exclusive Roots, you really can buy with confidence that we play fair - with the people we buy from and the customers we sell to. Visit our web site today to see what we have to offer.

Exclusive Roots is the trading arm of Tabeisa, a UK registered charity and operates under fair trade principles. Income generated through Exclusive Roots is reinvested into Tabeisa to support the social and economic development of poor communities in Africa.

We select the highest quality fairly traded products and offer them to you. We want to offer products that are made and traded in a fair and ethical way. But we also want you to receive great products.

If you want to contact us or ask us any questions then see the contact us page.

We can now also deliver to anywhere in the world. To see delivery charges see individual items.