Charka producers, Bangladesh

In the main our producers are part-time and work either at home or in groups locally- there is no other paid employment.

Our main challenge is persuading the UK retailer and consumer that these products are quality products- made in Bangladesh seems to be a problem for some of them. They expect everything to be low priced.

We trade because we know that we are contributing directly to women's empowerment and increase in standard of living. We plan to work with more producers and also start trading with other countries in the next couple of years.

Many people either do not know what fair trade is- or believe it is entirely food based. They need to understand that the prices we charge are giving a reasonable return to the producers and large multi- nationals can sell cheaper because wages are far less. People need to be more open minded and fair about what artisans in countries like Bangladesh can achieve. Hand made in Bangladesh does not mean cheap: a low price is a sweated labour price. Their skills are worth more than that.

Brenda Anderson

Waterside weavers of rangnewali wraps

Reaching the island of Leveah Sor from Cambodia's capitol, Phnom Penh, involves a lengthy ride over ever-rougher roads; a small ferry cross to a rural riverside landscape of rice paddies, maize and sugar-cane, and eventually, a tiny canoe punt over a peaceful tributary by smiling village women, takes the visitor to where a gentle clack-clack can be heard from the wide wooden looms resting between the high stilts that support the waterside houses, and protect them from the annual monsoon floods.

From this beautiful region, Coral Seed buys soft silk scarves hand-woven in a wide variety of subtly-coloured stripes, with no two ever being exactly the same. Sadly, this idyllic scene is set to change, as prices for the silk yarn, bought in from neighbouring Vietnam, are rising so rapidly that the village weavers are being forced to abandon their traditional livelihood, and seek factory work in towns many kilometres distant, thus destroying family life at the same time as robbing this, and many other weaving areas, of their textile-producing heritage.

Heartfelt from Mongolia -Alan Flux on Coral Seed's new range of felt bags

Mongolia's great natural product is wool - knitted, woven, felted; and so the bags [and other items] now being made in Mongolia for Coral Seed, under the 'Heartfelt' label, perpetuate a very long tradition.

The nomadic herders use this particular felt to protect their gers [yurts] against the long sub-arctic winters; but Coral Seed's designer [currently working in Mongolia as a VSO volunteer] was inspired to find a more decorative use for this utilitarian product - decorative, but practical, as demonstrated by Coral Seed's current range of bags .

Coincidentally, a small workshop trained to produce fur coats during the Soviet era was in need of help - and it so happened that their vintage East German fur and leather-sewing machines adapted perfectly to the pure sheep's wool felt.

Spinning yak wool, Mongolia

The bags are first sewn together by machine, for strength, and then over sewn by hand, and hand-embroidered with motifs often inspired by traditional Mongolian and Buddhist imagery; the range of hand-dyed colours swings from subtle to vibrant.

Perfectly in tune with fashion's current hand-made mood, these Heartfelt items are a unique fair trade offer from a beautiful and distant land.... more will follow, so watch this space...

Alan Flux