

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

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.<p>Thanks.<p>[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).<p>Also, by Africa in title == African Countries.
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luckyisgood
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.

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mathgladiator
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.

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ig1
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.

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fractallyte
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?

