About us

Tradewinds is a not-for-profit organisation. We aim to bring about a world where access to work and profit is distributed much more fairly than at present. To this end we buy and sell fair trade tea and coffee products. More information about What's so special about Tradewinds can be read or downloaded here.

What is fair trade?
Professor Brett Inder of Monash University and a Tradewinds Board member, believes we need to do more than pay a social premium to help communities. We need to establish a relationship between producer and consumer to build a complex economy that provides alternatives. In the world of trade, it is only when we relate to others as fellow human beings that change can really happen. And the most significant way we can trade more fairly is to buy products that have been value added.

What is value adding?
The most significant way we can trade more fairly is to buy products that have been value added - processed and packed - in their country of origin. Value adding assists less industrialised economies to move into modern-economy activities. Otherwise they remain sources of cheap commodities and of cheap labour for multinationals. Buying value added products from a developing country is the best possible way to assist their social progress and financial self reliance. It is the most sustainable form of assistance we can give.

How do we function?
Tradewinds Tea and Coffee Pty Ltd grew out of a company formed in 1979 and is now a proprietary company incorporated in 1991, and managed by an elected Board of Directors. The board is drawn from shareholders, who volunteer their time. Present directors are Brendan Finnane, Judge Michael Finnane, Ken Goodlet, Matt Goodlet, Gill Hewitt, Professor Brett Inder, Sharon Jackson and Richard Zoeller.

Built into the price of our products is a margin to promote fair trading by people in Australia and to support growers, value adding and product development in the countries from which we buy our tea and coffee.

What's certified fair trade?
Tradewinds was the first supplier to Australians of certified fair trade tea and coffee. What does this fair trade logo mean when you see it? It means that a small percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the product goes to local producer cooperatives for community development projects. This process is certified by Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO).

What is certified organic?
Where possible, we buy from producers who grow food without the use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides because this provides long-term productivity and a better product for our customers. Where this process has been recognised by a certifying body, it is indicated on price lists and packaging.