We work with many fair trade producers to make our toys and we are very proud to sell fair trade toys. However we are also proud of our dinosaur toys and our organic toys which are made in China and India. We use the expression “ethically sourced” to show that we know where these toys are made, who makes them and that there is transparency in our supply chain.
We believe that all our toys are made in a responsible manner. We do not countenance child labour, we will not work with partners who do not have decent working conditions and we do not accept fraudulent or illegal behaviour such as bribes or copying of designs.
In addition we like to meet the people we work with and see where our toys will be made as soon as possible in the relationship.
The one exception to this is currently BaSE, a fair trade organisation we have just started to work with in Bangladesh. We are hoping to visit them soon but their provenance is good enough that we are happy to continue to work with them before visiting.
The most queries we get when we say we ethically source is to do with our partner in China.
This is both fair and unfair there have been enough instances of abuse in Chinese factories that there is an aura of suspicion around their manufacturing processes, but there are also many instances of good practise which do not get the same publicity. We have been working with the partner who makes our dinosaurs now for 20 years. We do not change manufacturer to chase better prices we stick with someone we know and trust and who shares our values.
The production facility is quite small and is based within a small (by Chinese standards) city. The workforce normally cycle or walk to work and many go home for their lunch. We do not want to work with factories in the middle of nowhere, where staff live in 11 months of the year and which cannot be easily seen.
One of the surest ways to prevent any abuse is by workers having the choice to leave if they feel badly treated. Our partner competes with many other local companies for the workforce which means that wages are comparatively high. It means that our costs are also higher than they could be if we chased around after the cheapest price but this is not something we are interested in doing.
The other issue levelled at China is their government. We are not ever going to defend the Chinese government but we have similar issues with the governments of some of our most ethical producers. The behaviour of the Sri Lankan government is well documented and caused great distress to our partners there. We would not move our business away from them due to their undoubted dubious behaviour and the same applies to Bangladesh and Egypt.
We are proud to work with all of our production partners. We work by the rule that it is less where they are made and more who makes them which is important. And while we are continually looking for more fair trade partners to work with we are also very happy with the relationship we have with Dinosaur producer in China.
Ethical sourcing is always going to be both hard to prove and easy to claim. However as a small company we are proud to say that we know who we work with and who makes our toys.
