Thai Mountain Imports

• Company Name : Thai Mountain Imports
• About Us : The company technically isn't operating in the U. S. Yet as it's founders, Joe Burns and Zach Groen are in northern Thailand as volunteers in small villages and at an orphanage as English teachers. As recent grads in economics and sociology, respectively, from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a professor introduced us to the opportunity to volunteer in Northern Thailand as English Teachers/Business Consultants. Thai Mountain Imports didn't know much about wicker furniture except that an Akha man had been making it for over fifteen years for a large exporter in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, never making more than a dollar or so a day. He decided to move back to a small town near his village to be near his family and has started to train other villagers to help him craft the furniture. Zach and I started to do some research on the wicker furniture learning about different techniques and quality. We were extremely pleased with the quality of furniture that this village is able to produce. Our goal is to help the impoverished villages of these ethnic minority hill tribes(mainly Akha and Lahu) become self-sufficient without having to resort to drug trafficking or the sex trade. As globalization becomes more and more inevitable we feel that we can provide a marketplace enabling these ethnic minorities to maintain their culture. Slash and Burn farming has been the traditional way of life for these tribes for hundreds of years however, recently the Thai government has been encouraging a change in land use to protect the mountainous rainforest. This change has resulted in young people fleeing the villages for the big cities looking for work. They are often taken advantage of and end up getting involved in the drug trade, while many of the young women(girls) are forced to work in the brothels. We feel that these villages can offer a high-quality natural product that is environmentally friendly, make enough money to feed their families and send their children to get an education, while maintaining their culture and strengthening their communities. As of now we simply want to start opening the lines of communication with other importers, as we don't want the livelihood of this village to depend on two recent college grads that don't have any import/export experience. We guarantee that any importers of these products will be impressed with their quality. In addition we feel that the marketing capability of a "Fair Trade, Eco-Friendly" product at an extremely competitive price is vast. We also gaurantee that a good portion(we're not sure of the % yet)of the profits will go directly to the orphanage to help these amazing kids continue their education. Please contact us by email as we dont have a phone here in Thailand, we will not be back to Minneapolis until late december. Our current goal is to increase efficiency and production capacity without sacrificing quality. We feel that this should be easily attainable as the Akha have always been known for their high quality craftsmanship. We appreciate you taking the time to read about our project and we hope you contact us with any of your wickerwork needs. The head craftsman can literally make any type/design of wicker furniture from barstools to bedframes so send us any design or picture and we will give you a quote and timeframe as well as digital photos of work that they have finished.
• Product/Service : Fair trade wicker furniture importer of high quality rattan, water hyacinth,and bamboo furniture
• Country/Region : United States >
• Category : Furniture & Furnishings
• Contact Person : Mr. Joe Burns |||Volunteer Marketing
• Link More : United States Furniture & Furnishings ,United States Bamboo, Rattan & Wicker Furniture
• Telephone :
• Fax :
• Address : 16155 49th Place N
• Business Type : Other

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