Trade for Development Centre is a programme of Enabel, the Belgian development agency.
Miel Maya Honing is an NGO recognised by the DGDC (Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation): it supports bee-keeping projects in Mexico and Guatemala and carries out development education work in Belgium, focusing on public awareness-raising of Fair Trade issues.
Oxfam Fairtrade imports Fair Trade food products (over 170 lines) and retails them in Oxfam-Wereldwinkels and Oxfam-Magasins du monde, various organic and natural food shops and supermarkets as well as to local authorities. It also exports goods, mainly to France, Spain and the UK.
Ethiquable is one of France’s leading Fair Trade players. Though barely four years old, the company sells a wide selection of quality foods under the Max Havelaar label – coffee, tea, sugar, chocolates, fruit juice, etc. – with most ingredients coming from small-scale and family farms in developing countries. Ethiquable plans to entrust its label and products to a new business to be established in the Benelux countries; this will be an ideal basis for creating a company in this sector. To avoid the risk of stock-piling,
Weltladen are five shops selling Fair Trade products in the German-speaking cantons of eastern Belgium. They are supplied by Oxfam as well as various German Fair Trade suppliers. Their aim is to engage in Fair Trade, to raise public awareness of Third World issues and to support development projects in Third World countries.
Oxfam Fairtrade imports Fair Trade food products (over 170 lines) and retails them in Oxfam-Wereldwinkels and Oxfam-Magasins du monde, various organic and natural food shops and supermarkets as well as to local authorities. It also exports goods, mainly to France, Spain and the UK.
The more than two hundred world shops and more than six thousand volunteers in Flanders do not only sell fair trade products. They are also committed to providing information, awareness and action at local and national level for the benefit of fair world trade. Oxfam-Wereldwinkels builds lasting relationships with its producers/partners.
The new Belgian Federation for Fair Trade has three objectives: to support the representation of the sector, organizations/companies that want to focus on fair trade, provide information and raise awareness. To become a member, the organization must derive at least 80% of its sales from fair trade.
Launched in 2012 by a couple from Mechelen, the fashion store now has branches in Antwerp and Ghent. Supergoods offers clothing as well as care products, interior products and stationery. All this in a spirit of sustainable entrepreneurship and fair fashion for trendy buyers looking for their own style.
This brand of men’s shirts aims to be elegant, high quality and most importantly, durable, and going hand in hand with honesty and ecology. Mr Manchette loves sustainability and applies this love to all aspects of the production process. From fabric to work, from product to sale. Love and respect for people and the environment are embedded in the whole line. It fills the gaps in conventional clothing stores and fair fashion stores.
COSH! – COnscious SHopping – is an online platform that makes sustainable shopping easy and founded by Niki De Schryver from Bruges (Belgium). It allows users to learn about the sustainability criteria of different brands such as, for example, the production of clothing or its impact on the environment and on those who make it. In addition to brands, they also look at the the entrepreneurs’ vision and drive, all thanks to systematic assessments.
This association wants to make us aware of consumACTION by importing, creating and selling natural products according to fair trade standards. An example is vegetable ivory made from the nut (the tagua) of a palm tree from South America, mainly from Ecuador. The proceeds of the sale go to social and humanitarian projects in Belgium and all over the world.
Kari’T care is a family workshop founded by a Belgian-Benin couple where cosmetics are manufactured. She offers a range of cold-pressed soaps and care products, the main ingredient of which is pure shea butter from the Benin cooperative Soudom. Kari’T care only uses noble raw materials from fair production chains, from organic agriculture or harvested in the wild.
Love fashion and still contribute to our planet?
Which can. L’Envol du Colibri sells women’s clothing that is in line with a timeless, organic, ecological, responsible and ethical approach. Esther Sougné and Sophie Depas have carefully selected the brands according to the values they adhere to.
Kalani is a brand of high-quality, ethical and ecological bath linen that was launched in 2016. In Maori (the language of Polynesia), Kalani means paradise. The cotton used is 100% Fairtrade and 100% organic (GOTS) certified. Thanks to the online sale, which avoids many intermediaries and the costs of running a physical store, prices remain affordable.
Elecosy is active in the interior and paper industry and has offices in Belgium, the United Kingdom and Germany. Elecosy’s idea came about when one of them visited the paper company Maximus of the Millennium Elephant Foundation in Kegalle, Sri Lanka. Maximus employs local people to collect elephant dung and then processes it into paper products. It is a financial incentive to reduce poverty in the region.
Meer Dan Mooi is a clothing store in Geel that only sells organic and fair trade clothing. You will also find fair trade jewelery in the Meer Dan Mooi range. You can order online via the website.
BeFre company is specialised in design, production, transportation and delivery of custom made reusable, recycled, organic, FAIRTRADE, eco-friendly en CO2-neutral promotional, shopping and event bags. Our mission is to study, to develop and to come up with new eco-friendly reusable alternatives for polluting throw-away bags. Tailor made fabrication from 500 pieces !
Green License imports organic Fair Trade cotton clothing produced by the Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills project in India. The entire clothing production chain is located in India and adheres to organic farming principles (Skal) and Fair Trade criteria (Max Havelaar). Green License also sells Greenpeace merchandise in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Yemanja is a small and unique boutique in Antwerp selling innovative Fair Trade brands. It is always on the lookout for the best Fair Trade and ecological collections, and with distinctive labels such as Article 23, Les Racines du Ciel, Misericordi and Veja, proves that ethical and ecological fashion is very much ‘in’.
OzFair describes itself as trade that respects human beings and the environment. It sells a wide variety of fair trade and sustainable products, from teas to cereals, clothes and fashion accessories to mild cosmetics and ‘ethnic’ objects made from recycled material. It also has areas where customers can taste its products and learn about Fair Trade issues – ideal places for meeting, discussing and exchanging views.
Optimart has been engaged in solidarity-based, Fair Trade activities in the field of handicrafts since 1992. This non-profit organisation works with small, informal-sector urban organisations based in West Africa, most of them engaged in recovery and recycling. Believing that Fair Trade should go hand-in-hand with in-depth educational work, Optimart organises training seminars in international citizenship for future teachers and has recently been engaged in alternative music publishing and responsible tourism activities.
In 2015, Optimart was taken over by a group of volunteers and became… the BOOM – associative, self-managed and militant café.
Femimain is a collection of handicrafts designed by women’s cooperatives in Morocco in line with the principles of ethical trade. Cutting out the middlemen, Femimain works directly with cooperatives, guaranteeing them decent wages and working conditions. Femimain is part of a wider project, ‘Alcantara’, run by the ‘De Pianofabriek’ centre, whose aim is to increase public awareness of all the issues associated with sustainable development.
A scheme that enables direct trade from small-scale producers – Maya Chortí Indians in Guatemala – to consumers, the Chortí cooperative sells pure coffee via Belgian company Mayan Quality sprl/bvba, providing coffee lovers with a quality product from guaranteed sources and producers with a fair and stable income.
Tear Craft is a Christian alternative trade organisation which imports and markets Fair Trade products. These fall into two main categories: food products, such as cane sugar, coffee, honey (under the Max Havelaar label) and tea, and gift items, toys, greetings cards, etc.
Committed to trade that favours sustainable development, Nadia Ruchard and Serge Lenaerts have been selling a range of products in their warm and colourful shop since 2002, including:
Biodyvino is a wine merchant specialising in organic Fair Trade wine. The company was founded in October 2005 by Vincent De Coninck. De Coninck, a qualified sommelier, personally tastes and selects the wines, which must be either environmentally friendly (organic or biodynamic wines) or New World wines produced under Fair Trade conditions. There is an online shop for private customers and a catalogue for the hospitality sector is available on request.
La Pachamama was launched in April 2008. This online shop sells Fair Trade goods for young children and adults, including clothing for children aged 0-2, toys and games, books, care products, children’s decor, accessories and gift ideas.
Two organisations for international solidarity, Mouvement d’Actions à Travers-Monde and Identité Amérique Indienne work together and offer alternative travel formulas to explore other cultures. In 2009, the Altervoyages platform organises journeys to Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Guatemala (in collaboration with the Cafe Chorti cooperative) and to the Dominican Republic.
An initiative aimed at promoting Fair Trade and the social economy, Wereldcafé COOP opened its doors on 1 October 2004 in the Bondgenotenlaan in Leuven.
The café serves about 150 people a day in a child-friendly environment and offers its customers a range of social economy and Fair Trade products, including regional beers. Thousands of local people have discovered these products through information and tasting sessions, as well as other events such as performances and concerts.
The largest Belgian supermarkets offer fair trade products:
Click here to see where you can find products with Fairtrade-label in the supermarkets
Click here to see where you can find Ethiquable products.
