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Find out more about Traidcraft, our foundation principles and our values.

Traidcraft’s mission is to fight poverty through trade, practising and promoting approaches to trade that help poor people in developing countries transform their lives.

We identify services that small business need to enable them to trade effectively, and build capacity of local service providers to provide these services at an affordable basis.

We undertake lobbying and advocacy activities to campaign for trade policies and practices that help rather than hurt the poor. We also work to raise our profile with key supporter groups.

Every year as part of our commitment to stakeholder engagement, we gather the views of stakeholders about our performance through surveys, interviews and focus groups.

One of Traidcraft's Foundation Principles is to Respect all People and the Environment. The links between the lifestyles and business practices that we adopt and the sustainability of the world's eco-systems are increasingly well documented.

We are delighted with the new structure and format of these accounts, which we believe makes data about the impact of our work much more accessible and thus enhances the transparency and accountability to which we are committed.

Traidcraft is guided in all its work by our five Foundation Principles.

Traidcraft was set up as a Christian organisation and we seek to reflect this in our approach to our work.

The value of purchases made from the developing world brings a direct benefit to producers and is one of Traidcraft plc's most important areas of impact.

Traidcraft's approach to fair trade draws upon its Foundation Principles and all activities related to working with producers seek to work fairly, develop relationships and be sustainable.

Fair Traders remain our most significant supporter group.

As a publicly owned company we need to demonstrate that we manage our business responsibly and be accountable to our shareholders.

Licensing contributes to growing the value of Traidcraft’s fair trade purchases by providing volume sales opportunities for our core producer groups.

Traidcraft recognises that as a small company we can provide limited sales opportunities for our producers selling through our own channels. Our Non-Food Wholesale function aims to work with a select group of customers to increase orders for our mainstream ready suppliers, provide a learning opportunity for producers, building skills and confidence to reach a new type of consumer and build better awareness of fair trade and Traidcraft in the mainstream.

One of the means through which Traidcraft fights poverty through trade is through influencing the way businesses work. Part of our influencing role is to be a successful model of business ourselves.

We focus on the reduction and prevention of poverty and gross inequality, especially in developing countries. Traidcraft Exchange and Traidcraft plc fight poverty by developing poor producers' skills and market access.

We need to raise charitable funds in order to finance the work of Traidcraft Exchange, complementing the trading activity of Traidcraft plc.

Traidcraft surveys stakeholders as a way of holding ourselves accountable to them, and identifying ways in which we can improve our work.

Traidcraft plc has been trading tea for over twenty years and tea is an important product for poor producers and workers in several of the key countries where Traidcraft Exchange (TX) works (for example India, Kenya, Bangladesh, Vietnam).

As part of its strategic plan for 2007-2011, Traidcraft decided to make cotton one of its six 'strategic themes'. Our work aims to make a lasting difference to the lives of cotton farmers by helping them to boost their incomes from cotton and be less vulnerable to price and environmental shocks.

The developing world supplies 80% of the world's crafts and the industry employs many poor producers.

Our goal is that small enterprises in poor communities are accessing the business development services they require to operate effectively from sustainable service providers.

In Kenya we are working on a project in the dairy sector. The purpose of this project is to enable raw milk traders contribute to the creation of policy and institutional frameworks that are responsive to their needs and the needs of the poor.

In Tanzania we are working in the honey sector. The purpose is to re-establish beekeeping as a viable livelihood strategy in Tabora, Tanzania.

Traidcraft has a particular focus on mobilising the UK Christian community in the fight against poverty.

Traidcraft's success requires an awareness of our work and the positive impact that we have on poor people. Awareness is the first step towards attracting supporters and gaining access to influencers and decision-makers responsible for trade policies.

Traidcraft fights poverty through trade in its broadest sense, but we are best known as one of the leading fair trade organisations in the world. Both Traidcraft plc and Traidcraft Exchange have important roles in promoting the development of fair trade awareness and good practice, both in the UK and more widely, and we continue to pioneer new approaches to fair trade.

Traidcraft lobbies governments and promotes better corporate trading practices to achieve lasting change that will benefit poor communities by changing the rules and structures of trade.

Traidcraft aims to achieve lasting change that will benefit poor communities by changing the rules and structures of trade, and campaigners enable us to get our voice heard.

Traidcraft's Speaker Network is an important resource, raising awareness and understanding of fair trade and Traidcraft's work.

Traidcraft is targeting 16-24 year olds in our five-year strategy with the aim of developing relationships with those that will eventually become our core supporters.

Meet the People tours raise the awareness of fair trade for tour participants, as well as providing direct benefits to producers.

Traidcraft's Social Accounts for 2007 were awarded a Joint Commendation for SME reporting in the ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability Reporting.

To achieve our mission of fighting poverty through trade many Traidcraft activities depend on our supporter network. We aim to deepen our relationship with supporters by encouraging them to engage with several areas of our work.

Staff are one of the most important resources we have in achieving our mission of fighting poverty through trade. We therefore closely monitor our staff's wellbeing, development and views.

A diverse workforce better understands and can better meet the needs of the diverse stakeholders we work with and we encourage applicants from all areas of the community and train all staff in equality and diversity issues.

The Staff Association plays an important role in supporting and providing advice to staff, as well as ensuring their needs and views are communicated effectively to Traidcraft senior management.

This year we have continued to concentrate our development of understanding of which aspects of Traidcraft's activities have the most significant carbon footprint.

Traidcraft operates from three sites in UK. Our main site at Kingsway on Team Valley in Gateshead houses our main office, warehouse and distribution centre. This building is over 50 years old.

Traidcraft works with two parcel carrier companies (one for our mail order business and one for our Fair Trader business) and a number of pallet delivery companies.

Staff are strongly encouraged to recycle paper and cardboard at our Gateshead facilities. In 2007-2008 we invested capital in improving our plastic recycling facilities (particularly for the large amount of shrink wrap that comes into the premises on pallets).