Improving the livelihood of disadvantaged artisans through Fair Trade practices

Products by Handmade Expressions will help to promote an image of social responsibility, for your store, while contributing toward improving the lives of others. Partnering with grass-roots NGO artisan cooperatives, Handmade Expressions assists underprivileged and disadvantaged artisans around the world, guiding them to create high quality, trendy, handcrafted goods tailored for international markets. Many of these global communities are rich with local, traditional art forms, but lack the knowledge of and access to markets. The art forms produced are native to the artisan’s region, and utilize natural fibers and recycled materials wherever possible. Handmade Expressions’ mission is to create a global community for sharing traditional, rural artwork with urban cultures, across the world, preserving beautiful art forms and providing a dignified social standing for the artisans. Fair Trade is a growing trend in the United States and conscious buyers are demanding more and more fairly traded products and green goods from their local stores and chains. Handmade Expressions’ socially and environmentally responsible product line can be viewed at Handmade Expressions BAOlink premium vendor listing.
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Tom Pfleider, president of Pfleider Pfoods, Inc., has proven to be a man of many talents.

A “taste bud moment” involving a friend’s sauce made from a smoke-dried jalapeno, known as chipotle, thrust him on an unconventional path from working with world leaders in the surgical industry to creating award-winning, gourmet chipotle products. Using his friend’s recipe as a starting point, Tom Pfleider established Pfleider Pfoods, Inc., in 2003. By 2004, he had created his first award-winning sauce, Sweet Heat Addiction, and The Art of Chipotle was born. All of Pfleider Pfood’s The Art of Chipotle products are produced, processed and packaged entirely in the USA, using only the finest ingredients. The wide range of The Art of Chipotle sauces will appeal to all ages, ethnicities, and heat tolerances, and is distinguished enough for the finest gourmet meal yet quick and easy enough for an impromptu barbeque. You can view The Art of Chipotle at Art of Chipotle BAOlink premium vendor listing.

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Over 43,000 national and international wholesale vendors, retail buyers and industry representatives will gather, next February 2008, to attend the Winter New York International Gift Fair®. Well-established as the only gift and home furnishings tradeshow that brings together key industry representatives in the most incredible city in the world, the fair will have two opening days – on Friday, February 1st and on Saturday, February 2nd – at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, several of the Passenger Ship Terminal Piers and the Metropolitan Pavilion. Encompassing 650,000 square feet, this spectacular exhibition will feature more than 2,700 companies displaying new and intriguing products in nine major merchandise sections.

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Evidence of the Premium Gift industry embracing new technologies

Gift & Home Channel Logo

The new Gift and Home Channel, brainchild of FarCountries.com, a leading BAOlink.com trading partner, is a new Internet TV site designed to build and strengthen community among independent retailers and, according to Ray Gaulke, president of the Gift and Home Channel, this is the only online venue where retailers talk to retailers.

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BAOlink.com, your online global trade show, enables both wholesale vendors and retail buyers to gain insight into the important new product offerings to be featured at the upcoming Philadelphia Gift Show, January 5-8, 2008. Our virtual trade show lets you gather all the valuable information you need to ensure you spend your time at the Philadelphia Gift Show as efficiently as possible.

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Philadelphia Gift Show 2008, in conjunction with Birdwatch America, returns to the new Greater Reading Expo Center in Reading, Pennsylvania, January 5-8, 2008. Approximately 1,200 booths feature thousands of product lines, from national manufacturers, along with leading sales representatives available to assist you as you place your orders for the year; all while you enjoy the largest regional gift show in the country. A trademark show experience, the Philadelphia Gift Show provides the region’s retailers with thousands of products to choose from, including best-selling favorites like the sweet temptations by Sensational Sweets, all offered within a casual, relaxed show environment.

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