BackgroundAs a fashion company we want to continue to collaborate with and support the entire Indigenous brand value chain.
I have been inspired by the work of others in Organic Cotton farming. We endeavor to bring fair trade certifications deeper into the Indigenous supply chain.
It’s not an easy task to undertake, but with great partners and projects like the one described below we will all continue to make process towards fair trade certifications in the apparel industry.
Back in August 2010 Indigenous and its Organic Cotton supply partners started to evaluate the possibility of running a Fair Trade certified Organic Cotton pilot program with some of our organic farmers in the coastal valleys of Peru. Indigenous is financially supporting a portion of this work … the real heroes are the people on the ground making it happen. ( Thank you Orlando!! J )
Five of our best farmers in the Chincha Valley were selected for this pilot. All of them own an average area of 5 hectares and have been growing organic cotton for more than 10 years.
At the beginning the farmers were reluctant to gather together for this project, as Peruvian farmers are frequently made false promises by outside corporations. Based on our history working with them they decided to take part in the pilot.
Social ProjectOne of the main items under discussion during several meetings held was how a Fair Trade premium would be applied, once the certification was obtained. Complexity arose from the fact that these farmers don´t live in a community, they live and work on their farmland with their families.
Based on information from Fair Trade projects in Asia there was a suggestion for a self sustainable project which can not only increase the productivity of their harvests, but also work as business in the future. They all decided to use future proceeds to create a common Biol (Organic foliar fertilizer) production and storage room.
Through the program cylinders have been purchased to store the product. All of the supplies needed to start Biol Production (fish guts, milk, eggs, guano, molasses, etc) were also purchased. One of the farmers donated a piece of land close to his house, so they can build a small storage room in there and safe keep the Biol. Orlando provided construction materials and together with their families they built a small storage room.
The next step was to produce other natural fertilizers that would be required in organic agriculture. In November 2010, bins were requested and provided to start producing humus.
We believe that there is a lot of potential in what has been achieved so far with this group of farmers, and that the program could be expanded in the near future.
We are seeing a tremendous impact in the life of these farmers, and it is not solely economic. They feel that they are part of something bigger and believe that the could not only make a business but help other farmers by sharing their best practices in organic agriculture.
Where we standThese farmers organized themselves in less than half a year. They
have created a business plan aimed at expanding their organic model. They envision not only producing Biol and Humus for themselves, but for all the organic farmers in their valley. To accomplish this they need to double their production. Orlando will continue to help them by selling Biol and Humus to other organic farmers involved in our organic cotton production. Proceeds from these sales will go to the farmers fund to be used as they see fit.
If this project works they will incorporate new farmers into this group and expand the model to different agricultural valleys in Peru. Indigenous is hopeful in continue its support of this wonderful project.
Good thoughts,
Scott Leonard
Chief Executive Officer
Indigenous Designs Corporation
Currently, Ari is the Executive Director of Slow Money, a national organization quickly gaining prominence at the intersection of the sustainable food, socially responsible investing, localization, and social enterprise movements. Their mission is to catalyze investment in local food systems as a means to build strong, secure, robust local economies. Their current goal is to get 1 million Americans to invest 1% of their assets in local food systems by 2020. Slow Money is has been named one of the biggest ideas of 2010 by Business Week and one of the top five trends in Finance by Entrepreneur Magazine.
It was here that Scott, James and the Root Capital team visited with Juan Vargas, who owns and operates one of the many independent knitting workshops in the Indigenous supply chain. Juan’s humble workshop employ’s artisan knitters from his neighborhood. Currently his operation consists of just a few hand operated knitting machines, but it has grown and continues to grow and become more sophisticated. It is with the help of fair trade financing organizations like Root Capital that Juan plans to improve his workshop and to upgrade his knitting equipment so that he can work with finer knitting gauges and expand the number of products he can offer.
Root Capital is a nonprofit social investment fund that is pioneering finance for grassroots businesses in rural areas of developing countries. They provide capital, financial education, and market connections to small and growing businesses that build sustainable livelihoods and transform rural communities in poor, environmentally vulnerable places. Over the past 5 years Indigenous and Root Capital have come together bring financing to artisans at the BOP (Base of Pyramid). This visit highlighted one of the many ways that the partnership between Root Capital and Indigenous has brought socially responsible financing to the handicraft market in Latin America enabling thousands of artisans to become part of the global economy in a way that is fair, environmentally sustainable and scalable.
Making a difference, one stitch at a time … This season we are highlighting our artisans’ design & development process and acknowledging a very special contributor to our team— Berta Espinosa Escobar. Berta’s passion for the art of knit design and scaling it to market travels back many years. She graduated with a degree of Interior Design from the Arts Institute in Peru. As her life progressed, she married and became a mother of two wonderful children. Although being a mother and wife was rewarding, Berta’s passion for design and her entrepreneurial spirit never faded. When she was a young mother, her sister introduced her to hand looming. She was so excited about this new art form that she immediately began knitting sweaters and eagerly collecting all sorts of knitting books relating to stitch design. Within a few months, her sister introduced her to a friend who had a local fashion boutique in Lima. Together, the two created sweaters to sell at the boutique. Orders began to grow and a few years later Berta met Patricia Roose, the founder of an artisan-based social enterprise that now works
Berta has a unique story and is proud to be a part of the greater Indigenous family. She understands the importance of fair trade and knows that whatever she designs or develops with Indigenous, it will help to bring much needed opportunity to the Peruvian people who are involved with all aspects of the process—from the organic cotton and alpaca farmers to the yarn spinners, and of course, to the talented artisan knitters. Berta is one of many of our gifted women entrepreneurs within the Indigenous fair trade supply chain.
