To start a leading-edge fair trade business requires a clear vision, dedicated hard work, and help from creative business coaches. These are the key threads that Alleson Kase and Ellen Agger wove together to begin the adventure that is Tammachat Natural Textiles of Mahone Bay.

The business imports fairly traded, handcrafted clothing, textiles and table linens that are manufactured in a way not considered when fair trade certification and import regulations were developed. But with continued commitment and the support of many mentors they are finding the path to bring exquisite and fairly traded handmade textiles from Southeast Asia to Nova Scotia.

Kase and Agger were travelling around Thailand where they indulged a passion by visiting a weaving co-op. "The women there told us their sales were down, which meant they had to limit their membership. Right away, we knew we were going to connect their desire to expand their market with our desire to find new careers," says Kase. And so they dove in head first, even though they had never done this kind of work and didn’t have a business plan.

They brought some textile pieces back to sell in Nova Scotia last year, and the rest, as they say, is history.

From the beginning, they followed their vision that where money is spent can change the world. And that’s why they think it’s so important to give consumers access to alternative products that are fairly traded. She adds "our bottom line is not profitability but ethical practice."

In order to import products into Canada, and to label the products "fairly traded" some level of standardized classification or certification is necessary. As Kase observes "the artisans we meet and the textiles we trade defy standardization." The industry category of fairly traded textiles is so new that producers are not yet organized into worker co-ops so western companies interested in selling these products have to deal directly with small family groups and individual designers.

Handmade textiles are produced in many steps which means as many as 10 farmers and artisans could be involved to make one item. Kase uses the example of a baby’s sun hat to illustrate her point. "There’s the farmer who grew the cotton, organically but without certification. Then there’s the group of grandmothers who fluffed and spun the yarn by hand, their neighbour and / or daughter who wove the cloth, the artist who designed the hat, the milliner who made the pattern, the tailor who cut the cloth and sewed the machine stitching, the natural dyers who dyed the cloth for decoration, the embroiderers who made and assembled the appliqu detail."

To complicate the process further, these people may not all live in the same village, and they don’t speak English or use computers.

Thai community development workers helped with logistics overseas, but the question of fair trade certification has yet to be resolved. It is exactly this integrated, village approach to manufacturing that causes the most challenges from a business perspective. The "complex production network" of handmade textile pieces doesn’t fit easily into the fair trade certification model used for commodities like coffee, tea and chocolate. Tammachat Certification may continue to be difficult as obtaining certification might require them to change the very traditions that make the pieces sustainable, and therefore desirable to Western customers. For this reason, Kase and Agger will continue their hands-on, direct approach of meeting the producers in person.

They are actively researching alternative trade agencies like the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), which places the priority on business practices rather than the products. According to their website, IFAT’s mission is "to enable producers to improve their livelihoods and communities through Fair Trade."

The IFAT logo is used by over 150 trade organizations worldwide, including Tammachat’s major supplier in Laos. The two largest suppliers Tammachat partners with in Thailand are worker co-ops who belong to an umbrella agency called ThaiCraft. ThaiCraft is an IFAT member.

To work toward this vision, they began with a four-month buying trip during the past winter to northern Thailand and Laos to seek out small, remote villages where textile artisans still work using traditional methods that intentionally honour the natural environment around the villages, thereby ensuring the sustainability of their own lives, forest vegetation and waterways. The work continues as the direct approach to business continues in Nova Scotia. They sell Tammachat products by direct contact with customers at small local events, such as the one in Mahone Bay on May 10-11.

Tammachat’s progress as a developing business has been assisted by experts in several fields. Transfair, Canada’s fair trade agency, is very supportive. "The market for fair trade certified textiles is growing enormously and it would be great to have more importers, manufacturers, and distributors here in Canada," says TransFair’s communications officer, Cynthia Wagner.

Sally Doucette is a freelance writer living in Dartmouth.