Fair Trade in Nepal

Today is an official strike day here in Nepal. It is kind of their labour day so there is for example hardly any public transportation or taxis. Some of the persons working at Watabaran had not been able to get to work today because of the strike.

Today I started of by going to Patan, just south of Kathmandu. First I met with the Fair Trade Group Nepal and they told me a little about fair trade here in general, but unfortunately they didn't have as much information that I had hoped.
After having met them I went to two nearby Fair Trade shops. It was interesting to see everything that had been produced under fair conditions, and also to compare the price tags there with the price tags in the tourist district. All the shops in the tourist district claim to be fair, ecological and so on but that is simply not true. So the price is of course much higher in the Fair Trade shops...

After the visits in Patan I went to the Watabaran production facilities and met with Tirtha and the production supervisor. They gave me an estimate on the cost to produce shirts here in Nepal and we discussed what we can do. It seems impossible to get a hold of organic cotton fabrics here in Nepal, bu we have still not given up on finding some.
Tomorrow we are going together to a fabric dealer here in Kathmandu, we'll see how that goes.