Pachacuti - Panama Hats and Fair Trade Clothing

We have recently completed our first baseline for the SFTMS (Sustainable Fair Trade Management System) with 8 producer groups in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. The assessments were led by Belen Sanchez, a Masters student from Ecuador who worked with us as an intern for two months over the summer and developed the tools for this work. I gave a presentation to each group about Fair Trade and the work of Pachacuti in South America and took notes throughout the process and Mark Rogers, my husband, did the Eco Mapping and took photographs of the day's activities.

The assessments took the form of 1-2 day long meetings designed to engage and elicit input from each group’s administration, employees and/or homeworkers. Each assessment involved:

1. Pre-screening in the UK- analysing market, legal, quality and customer requirements pertinent to each group
2. Fair Trade Principles Analysis– investigating producers’ understanding of and adherence to Fair Trade princples.
3. Group Structure/Organigram- defining different roles within each group to facilitate communication
4. Employees / Homeworkers Feedback- providing feedback from the workers on how Fair Trade is affecting their lives, covering issues such as Fair Wage, Training, Satisfaction with the quantity of work, Health and Safety and Satisfaction with the management of the group.
5. Production flow chart- analysing the workflow of the organisation with the aim of implementing quality control practices in the production process
6. Eco-mapping- identifying social, environmental and health and safety issues in our producer’s production processes and premises
7. Working plan- mutually identifying and prioritising actions to be implemented as a result of discussion about the above points which will improve their adherence to fair trade principles and our fair trade business relationship.

I believe that the SFTMS baseline assessment allowed us to gain a greater understanding of our producer groups and provided a basis for effectively communicating and planning our fair trade business relationship. Feedback provided by the groups generally found the SFTMS baseline assessments to be a very rewarding and educational experience for them.

A few common observances were deduced from our SFTMS baseline assessment experience.
The SFTMS:
1. Provides a structured and objective way of looking at each organisation and their FT business relationship with Pachacuti. This was the first time for many groups to sit down and take a strategic look at their business and how it works.
2. Cleared up confusion, over what is Fair Trade and the FT requirements. Remarkably, after a 7 year trading relationship with Pachacuti, one group still thought Fair Trade was a european company .
3. Helped to identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement within each organisation and their fair trade relationship with Pachacuti. During the assessments, most organisations appointed new responisibilities to members which will improve their efficiency.
4. Gives a greater voice to the workers. By speaking directly to us without management present, workers were able to give unhindered feedback about the amount they were being paid, their health and safety, skills development and the general conditions of their work. This allows Pachacuti to have real information to assess and develop how our fair trade activities can improve the quality of our producers lives.
5. Immediate positive impacts to the health and safety of our workers. Many workers complained about the dust from raw materials, but didn’t like wearing their mask while working. We agreed with management that a new policy be implemented making workers wear masks when needed. Pachacuti has also agreed to purchase 2 professional respirators for chemical handling. We have also agreed to pay for eye tests for our embroiderers and look into ways of providing glasses for all 80 members of the embroidery group and will pay for a medical examination for our alpaca knitters who cannot afford to visit the doctor.
6. Gave us greater insight into the importance of the organisations for the participating members. We were told by one embroidery group- “We are more than a business, we are community and a family.” Another group of knitters said – “There are no chiefs here- we are all equal parts of the community. “
7. Highlighted positive environmental improvements already being made by our groups. We were very pleased to see the water filtering and recycling system of our hat producers and the solar hot water heater of our natural dye knitters. We are also exploring how we might be able fund one group’s water motor project as part of our carbon offsetting.
8. Strengthen Pachacuti’s ability to offer assistance to our suppliers. By taking an in-depth look into how our suppliers work, we were able to pass on best business practice.
9. Allows producers to direct how Fair Trade will benefit them the most. By developing an annual action plan with Pachacuti, producers prioritise and commit to activities which will strengthen their organisation.

The trip provided a valuable insight into the work of our producers and we were really pleased with the standards which we saw and the feedback which we received about the difference which our fair trade purchasing makes to the producers and their communities.

The RE:Fashion Awards are the first awards dedicated to ethical fashion and I am very pleased to have been selected as a finalist in two categories, Re:People and Re:Business. The awards are designed to recognise designers and manufacturers who are making the fashion industry more ethical and sustainable through improving social and environmental standards.

The judging panel includes Katharine Hamnett, Hilary Alexander and Jane Shepherdson. It sounds as if it will be a very glamorous evening culminating in a fashion show featuring outfits by Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Preen and more.

Having spent the past three weeks in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia carrying out a busy schedule of producer workshops to analyse and improve ethical and environmental standards with our producers, I certainly feel that the nomination has come at a very appropriate time. We are carrying out the pilot for the Sustainable Fair Trade Management System which will certify the production process, as opposed to the current label on the raw materials. As such, we have worked with each producer group to look at issues ranging from a fair price to health and safety to recycling of waste.

The findings were fascinating and we have strengthened the relationship with our producer groups as a result. In addition, we now have an action plan for the next year, both for ourselves and each producer group, in order to improve any areas where we have identified the need for improvement. This has ranged from undertaking to pay for sight tests and finding charities providing reduced price glasses for the embroiderers of our childrenswear to looking into the creation of a Spring/Summer range of alpaca/silk knitwear for 2010 as many of our knitters desperately need more work in the early Spring.

On the whole, we were incredibly impressed by all of our producer groups and their commitment to Fair Trade values and environmental compliance. Whilst carrying out an Eco Map of our panama hat associations premises, we found they had recently installed a complete water recycling system to re-use all water used in the production process. In Bolivia, our natural dye group had a solar water heater waiting to be installed.

The most common problems were probably the most easy to address: health issues resulting from workers not wearing face masks, which in most cases they possessed but they didn't like wearing them!

We worked with several of the groups to look at their pricing policy, calculating everything from the cost of raw materials to the minimum wage for everyone involved in the production process down to final cent for the bag to deliver the goods to the shipper. It was very rewarding to hear from groups about how excited they were to have a Pachacuti order as they knew they would earn more money.

However, there is still a lot more to do and many more of our producers who, although paid a good price for the items they make for us, are just not making the volume of products to earn a good living. Despite the economic gloom, I know that the clothing and accessories we make sell incredibly well for us and for our trade customers - I just need to find more outlets for their beautiful products so that I can keep these women in year round employment, supporting their families and strengthening their communities.