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Ask HN: Is there an existing *Amazon* for fair-trade goods "Made in Africa"?

by sharadgopal on 3/10/11, 2:20 PM with 4 comments

Hi, I was just wondering whether any of you have heard of any e-commerce websites that sell fair-trade products (besides coffee/ tea) that have been produced in African countries ? I could only find individual organizations with such websites, and most of them were not really fair trade certified. If you know of any such place, please let me know. I am looking into the idea of getting a mock marketplace just to gauge the interest in this niche, and if any of you could provide any criticisms of the the idea[1], that would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

[1] Idea: To have a consolidated space dedicated to connecting fair-trade certified products made in African countries and consumers in first world countries (primarily usa).

Also, by Africa in title == African Countries.

  • by luckyisgood on 3/10/11, 3:22 PM

    Have a look at http://www.novica.com/

    They specialize in home decor products form all around the world, West Africa included: http://west-africa.novica.com/

    They claim they operate under fair trade principles: http://www.novica.com/customerservice/ - although, i do not see any fair trade certificates clearly displayed on their site (do fair-trade certificates exist at all? i'm not an expert on that).

    * as per your idea: any scarce product, accompanied with a great story, could sell really well. go ahead and let the world know of the unknown beauty Africa is.

  • by mathgladiator on 3/10/11, 2:30 PM

    Not sure, but I wager Amazon will be doing it in 1-3 years if there is a market there (or someone does some powerful fair-trade marketing).

    If you have found a market, then you could build a import-export business and then maybe sell out to Amazon in 2 years.

  • by ig1 on 3/10/11, 4:31 PM

    You could actually run your entire backend operations from Amazon, as they offer operations as a service so you can get them to do your stock management, warehousing, etc.

  • by fractallyte on 3/10/11, 4:31 PM

    I occasionally wish for an e-commerce site that specialises in 'Not made in China'...

    What ever happened to quality products from other Pacific Rim economies?