Moroccan Furniture and Unique Home Decor Importer Adopts Fair Trade Practices

May 27, 2007 (PRLEAP.COM) Lifestyle News
Moroccan furniture and home decor's largest importer, The Moroccan Bazaar, announces the adoption of new purchasing standards in an effort to adhere to its principle of promoting the Moroccan handmade industry while displaying a socially responsible relationship with the artisans’ community.

Despite the increasing demand for Moroccan home decor and furniture, global competition from manufactured imitation from China and India, rise of raw material and falling prices have squeezed the earning potentials of Artisans to new lows. In the face of deteriorating workplace, The Moroccan Bazaar has developed a new approach to its purchasing procedures.

To avoid any supply disruptions, The Moroccan Bazaar launched its pilot program directed to Furniture and certain home decor artisans first then to the rest of its furnishings product line in the coming months.

The Moroccan Bazaar’s fair trade initiative overview:
Fair price: Following its tradition of being the higher paying Moroccan handcraft exporter, the Moroccan bazaar is increasing the price it pays for its good 15% over the next 3 years.
Fair workplaces: Workplaces will be monitored on a regular basis to ensure that working conditions are observed and local and international labor laws are respected.

Fair trade education: Customers purchasing Moroccan Furniture and decor are educated about the ramification and the far reach of purchasing authentic Moroccan handmade furnishings and the support that their purchase represent in the preservation of whole handmade home decor sector of the Moroccan economy.
Fair environmental practices: The Moroccan Bazaar keeps the safeguard of the environment at the forefront when interacting with Moroccan furniture makers for instance in the way they dispose of paint leftover or the handling of any other hazardous materials.

Fair assistance and respect of culture: The Moroccan Bazaar takes not only the role of educating the US Market but also the Moroccan artisans about their products and their contribution to promote the trade and their culture. Assistance and hand on collaboration has lead to many successes such as the collective bargaining for cheaper raw materials used in Moroccan furniture and in providing financial training to artisans.
The Moroccan Bazaar with its proactive approach to fair trade issues, despite having increased the cost of inventory, has forged long term partnerships with suppliers and has achieved a sustainable growth in North America consistently for the last 5 years.

For more information visit 'Decorating News' The Moroccan Bazaar's Moroccan Decor site.