Our history
Above: Members of the SAWA Women Self Help Group presenting the certification document from The Ministry of Labour after their meeting in Timau, Meru County.
Transform Trade was set up in 1986, as the charitable arm of the pioneering fair trade business Traidcraft Plc, and was known as Traidcraft Exchange until 2022.
At the heart of both Traidcraft Plc and Traidcraft Exchange was a shared mission – to build a world free of injustice in trade.
The idea behind the charity was simple; use profits from Traidcraft to educate consumers in Britain about alternative trade, both to help increase sales, and work directly with producer organisations who supplied Traidcraft Plc with products.
Traidcraft Exchange then started looking beyond the producers who supplied Traidcraft Plc and found opportunities to work with farmers and artisans across the world who were trading in local and regional markets – people who may never export to the UK, but nonetheless could harness the power of trade to change lives.
We’re proud of our roots in the alternative trade movement and we carry that same passion with us today.
Whilst Traidcraft Plc closed it’s doors in 2022, we carry their legacy into the future, pioneering new approaches to making the trade system fairer for small producers across the world.
Working with local partners, and drawing on Traidcraft plc’s experiences as well as our own, we’ve supported small-scale tea growers, cotton farmers, jute growers, craftspeople and others to come together, develop a collective voice, build their confidence and get the relevant training to meet the challenges of rapidly changing markets. Today, we work in three sectors - tea, fashion, and farming.
Alongside this direct work with producers and farmers, we campaign for changes to unjust policies and laws which prevent people in the global south from getting a fair deal from trade.
Our highlights through the years…
1979 Traidcraft is established.
1986 Transform Trade is established under the name Traidcraft Exchange.
1989 International Federation for Alternative Trade is founded (forerunner to the World Fairtrade Organisation) with Traidcraft as an original member.
1990 European Fairtrade Association founded, with Traidcraft as an original member.
1990 Traidcraft begins to sell the UK’s first Fairtrade chocolate bar.
1992 Transform Trade helps found The Fairtrade Foundation.
2002 In partnership with the Co-op, the Traidcraft mark is first used to accredit products the Fairtrade mark cannot reach including wine and charcoal.
2007 Traidcraft wins the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
2013 Transform Trade wins their campaign to establish a Groceries Code Adjudicator.
2022 Traidcraft Plc closes its doors leaving Transform Trade to carry on the mission and use the Traidcraft name where appropriate.
2024 Transform Trade supporters help win a campaign to end the Energy Charter Treaty.
We need your help
It sounds obvious… that trade should value people over profit. But right now, conventional trade gets nowhere near that goal.
So we’re building the biggest ever public record of support for people centred trade - to power this movement forward.
Will you add your support?