Helping bring about world peace and understanding is a lot to ask of a retail store, but if you can facilitate international good will and please your customers by selling a variety of goods made in Pakistan in Poughkeepsie, why not try?
That was the logic that led by Cecilia Dinio Durkin to Pakistan earlier this summer on a trade mission called Pakistan Handmade. As owner of Women”™s Work at the Poughkeepsie Plaza Mall, which sells products from women”™s collectives and female artisans from around the world, Durkin was part of a 14-person delegation of Fair Trade wholesalers sent by USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) on a five-day trip to introduce U.S. business owners to potential suppliers in Pakistan.
“The trip for me gave me exposure to a culture and country I knew very little about and I walked away with five new suppliers for my store,” said Durkin.
The store is part of a bid to create the country”™s first Fair Trade Mall, an endeavor that commenced last spring when the mall management liked Durkin”™s idea to arrange for other stores in the Poughkeepsie Plaza to seek to sell as much fair trade goods as possible within the framework of their businesses.
Certified fair trade goods were valued at $4.08 billion worldwide in 2008, a 22 percent increase over 2007, according to Fair trade Labeling Organization, an international certifying group that estimates 7.5 million producers and their families benefit from the system.
Fair trade is generally viewed as a partnership based on workplace transparency and workers”™ rights and pay.
Originally a journalist, Durkin was traveling in Africa working on stories with her husband ”“ a wildlife conservationist ”“ and became interested in craftspeople she met in her travels. The interest became an endeavor to help them market their wares and after first starting a store in Cold Spring, she moved her store to the Poughkeepsie Plaza in October 2009.
She said that she was nervous about the security situation in Pakistan. “But the thing I found overwhelming, the people in Pakistan were so interested in us and so welcoming,” she said. “Their hospitality was just over the top.”
Durkin said she expected to meet mainly small business artisans making handicrafts, but instead, met sophisticated businesswomen who ran commercial enterprises that were already exporting in volume to Europe. “They were very sophisticated and very successful women n their own right,” she said. “I was very surprised.”
She and her traveling colleagues did site visit to factories and workshops, “Of course they were handpicked by USAID, but they were all fair trade ethical businesses so we were very pleased with what we found,” said Durkin.
She has selected five lines of products to sell at Women”™s Work, including silver jewelry, handbags and accessories, and clothing. She might try to sell furniture, but is still investigating whether it can be done profitably after factoring in shipping costs.
The products share a common thread, “They are absolutely gorgeous,” Durkin said.
