|
Quick Links
Next Shipment
End of September
(call for any last minute advance orders NOW)
|
|
Take Action
Start a Revolution...
...a Fair Trade Clothing Revolution!
1. Submit a photo of you, a coworker or a customer wearing their favorite Ganesh Himal Trading Fair Trade clothing item, accessory or outfit. Include a brief statement (a few sentences) about why you choose to wear Fair Trade clothing. Better yet, have fun and create beautiful outfits from lots of FTF members to show how we compliment each other! 2. We'll post this on our Facebook page and link it to your store's Facebook page and display your store's website address. We will also tweet it using #fairtraderevolution. 3. Then "share" your picture with your "friends" and/or promote it on your fan page. 4.Tweet it if you are a tweeter under #fairtraderevolution. 5. The store that gets the most "likes" wins a free scarf of their choice and will be featured in an article in our newsletter, on our Facebook page and in our Fair Trade News Blog. 5. Round One for the most "likes" ends October 1st. Let's show the world Fair Trade Clothing is a viable option!
|
|
Friends in Fair Trade
Fair Trade in the Peruvian Amazon
Traveling along the Maranon river some 120 kilometers from the city of Iquitos is the community of San Jorge. Ten families from there have grown Sacha Inchi since 2006.
Sacha Inchi (plukenetia Volubilis Linneo) is a legume that tastes similar to peanut. Highly digestible (96%) sacha inchi is packed full of healthy benefits. It has a high protein content, is rich in antioxidants (vitamin A and E) and in essential and non-essential amino acids. Most importantly over 48% of the legume is comprised of Omega3, the essential fatty acid many people do not get easily.
Fair Trade Sacha Inchi brittle is now available to consumers in the US. Proceeds from the sale of Sacha Inchi brittle will benefit the Amazon environment and the families of San Jorge.
Growing sacha inchi in the rain forest does not harm the forest. It is a native plant, and its cultivation helps support and maintain biodiversity in the Peruvian Amazon. Farmers use natural farming practices including compost made from plant-waste materials to fertilize the plants and non-toxic biological pest controls like birds and beneficial insects. Thus, Sacha Inchi Brittle is non-toxic for producers, consumers and the planet! Cultivating sacha inchi benefits the local environment in the following ways:
- Improves soil fertility on small farms,
- Prevents further soil erosion, a big concern for Amazonian agricultural communities,
- Supports habitat for beneficial birds that provide natural pest control.
- Produces a more balanced environment for insects that are vital to the viability of the ecosystem.
Sacha Inchi brittle sells in a 4oz pouch bag for: $5.95
For more information and wholesale pricing please contact Marco Hernandez from Made by Hand International Cooperative at:
(302)539-6335
madebyhand2@yahoo.com
marco@amazon-rain-power.org
www.amazon-rain-power.org
Thank you for supporting Fair Trade in the jungles of Peru!
| |
Power of 5 update
The Girls Say Thank you!
Thank YOU so much for raising over $1600 for the Power of 5 through your month long store event! Take a look at this cool poster they created to visually track donations!
Ethical Choices!
Thank YOU for your hard work and collecting $550 for Power of 5 through your month long Campaign!
THANKS TO ALL the other stores and individuals who have contributed in the past few months! Wish we could name you all! Send us your fun fundraising techniques and we'll write about them for others to use!
|
|
LAFFF out loud!
We have a motto at Ganesh Himal. We want to create products that are Long lasting, Affordable, Fun, Functional AND Fair Trade (LAFFF)! We are inviting you to LAFFF with us around the topic of clothing.... a topic that so often provides us nothing to laugh about.
We have constantly asked ourselves over the years whether Fair Trade can provide the practical items of everyday life, not just beautiful items for our shelves but the hard working items that we use in our kitchens, on our tables, or for clothing ourselves. We've always wanted to help create "functional art" using and promoting the artisans traditional skills to create the things we actually use in our lives. Along with this notion, Ric and I have always wanted to create items that are long lasting and affordable. Items that we could afford to buy and that were "timeless" in their design so that they weren't just the whims of a passing color fad and destined for the junk pile once that fad had passed. We call it creating the "Levi's" of products, and to that end there are many styles that we have carried for the past 25 years....because they are always "in style" and hugely practical. This not only helps the artisans but it helps our customers pocket books and ultimately the earth.
Recently Sarah, our wonderful marketing guru at Ganesh Himal, inspired by LAFFF and the GH "levi's concept" came up with the idea to start a "Fair Trade clothing revolution". A focused effort to promote Fair Trade clothing as a practical and positive alternative to the H&M mass marketing concept of changing trends every two weeks so that customers have to buy more and more to stay hip. Sarah wants to make "Fair Trade clothing" a viable alternative for people tired of participating in the mainstream fashion industry and sweatshop sourced apparel." She believes that we can "redefine what clothing and fashion mean to us.... not be slaves to an industry that likes to tell us what to wear, how long to wear it, and to always buy more than we need." Sarah shouts out "let's ignore the voices that say our self worth is dependent on buying an outrageously priced pair of pants that will be out of style in 6 months and let's encourage others to do the same. If we do it together it will happen."
And so it is, as with most things at GH, our team members become inspired and things just start to happen. Sarah has started us on our way to publicize a Fair Trade Clothing Revolution and we want you all to join in. We're going to have some fun with it and hope you will too. If we LAFFF together, the work is just not that hard, and will certainly create lasting change....the ripple effect! Let's do it with clothing!
Namaste,
Denise
|
|
Artisan Spotlight
Bhaktapur Craft Paper
About Bhaktapur Craft Paper:
In the heart of the Himalayas, Nepali craftspeople have been producing handmade paper for over a thousand years. Bhaktapur Craft Paper (BCP) an employee owned cooperative, uses this ancient tradition to help low income rural and urban families earn a fair and equitable income while sustaining an important traditional craft. BCP is committed to community development and invests a substantial percentage of their profits in community projects such as water supply, sanitation, resource conservation, education, and day care facilities. When purchasing these products you are helping Nepali people help themselves. Ganesh Himal Trading is proud to have been working in partnership with BCP since 1986.
Read more about BCP on our updated artisan pages here
(must be logged in to view)
|
|
 | Handwoven Cotton Scarf
AC-S-ODS
Price: $6.50 |
|
 | Gift Card/
Earring Card Set of 10
PR-B-HGC
Price: $3.50 |
| | |
 | Silkscreened Cotton Bag
BG-S-SPB
Price: $12.50 |
|
 |
BACK TO SCHOOL!
Hemp Computer Bag
HM-D-BML
Price: $38.00 |
|
 | |
Cotton/Hemp Blend Shirt
CS-S-MFH
Price: $16.00
|
|
 | |
Cotton/Hemp Blend
Pants CP-S-SPH
Price: $14.50
|
|
|
|
Shipping Charges: To Charge or not to Charge, That is the Question!
Recent customer queries have inspired us to address the confusing topic of shipping and how it's calculated at GH. Some folks want to know why we charge shipping at all! So we realized it's time to explain!
To put it simply, the invoiced price of the item that you buy from GH is the cost that we incur to buy the item from the artisan, ship it from Nepal to Spokane, enter it through customs, warehouse it, put it on our website, manage it by our wonderful staff, provide customer service and make a profit. Our general formula is to take OUR cost to the artisan and times it by 2-2.25 to cover all of these expenses. We feel that this cost reveals to you, our customer, the item's cost from Nepal.
Next we add shipping and handling as a separate line item on your invoice. This shows you how much it costs to get the item shipped to you from Spokane. It includes shipping supplies, packing the items into the box (handling) and shipping (UPS or USPS). It even includes a bit to pay Ric for all of the dumpster diving he does to recycle boxes. The formula that we have arrived at for shipping and handling is Hard Goods: 7% (2% handling +5% freight) and Jewelry: 5% of the item cost (2% handling +3% freight). This is a shipping equation based on past years costs. We don't have the time or resources to weigh each box, calculate each individual boxes shipping cost and then add it to the invoice so this equation is how we generalize it. Sometimes our shipping costs to you are a bit over our actual costs but many times they are under. At the end of the year we just want it to break even.
To calculate your cost of a GH item is as follows:
Non Jewelry item: Add the GH invoiced cost +7% (i.e. a $5.00 scarf adds .35 shipping and handling for a cost to you of $5.35)
Jewelry item: Add the GH invoiced cost +5% (i.e. a $10.00 earring adds .70 for a cost to you of $10.70).
(You can then take this actual cost and compare it to your other vendors who offer free or reduced shipping to see if we are competitive.)
So, why do we do it this way? I like to monitor how much is being returned to the artisans and to Nepal. It's easier for me to do that if I am not incorporating the US shipping costs into that mix. Somehow also, I want you, our customers to know what shipping & handling costs are for you. I don't want to hide it, it just seems more transparent this way. In our present pricing of our items we can't absorb the US shipping and handling charges so if we were to provide "free shipping" or lower shipping costs we would have to raise our prices.
Perhaps this is convoluted to some but one thing you can always count on is that we will try to stay as close to our actual shipping and handling costs as we can and they will not vary from month to month so you can ALWAYS figure your cost as the GH item invoiced price plus 5% or 7%. If we are going to change that it will most likely be only yearly and when we are informed by UPS or USPS that they are changing their prices!
I hope this helps and that you keep asking question! For more on our wholesale policies please visit our wholesale policies page on our website.
|
|
|
|
|
