About the Producer

Member of the World Fair Trade Organization

• Located in Indonesia
• Provides training and export facilities to over 100 small-scale Balinese craft workshops
• Established Bali's first Fair Trade village, with projects such as tree plantations, orchards, water tanks, artisan workshop and revolving cow project

Visit the Mitra Bali website

In Bali, many small craft producers are missing out to large, well-established, commission paying craft businesses in the 'great Bali tourism bonanza'. Without direct access to the Bali transport network, it is difficult for small producers with little working capital to access these tourist markets. Yet the contribution of these artisans to the development of the island is substantial, and their artistic output represents the visible face of Balinese Culture, which, ironically, helps to draw tourists and buyers to Bali.

To counter the marginalization of these producers, Mitra Bali works with around 100 small producer groups across the island, marketing their products both locally and internationally, to Fair Trade and commercial buyers. Mitra Bali pays a 50% advance on all orders, and has set up a free Design Centre for producers that provides a library, design consultants and workshops on new trends, technical production, health and safety, and environmentally sustainable production.

Wayan Candri

Before Wayan Candri had his own workshop, he worked as a contract painter around the Tampak Siring region in Bali. In 2003 he decided to open his own production unit for handcrafts, and in the same year he started to work with Mitra Bali.

His workshop is inside his house, where he makes various beautiful wooden painted handcrafts. The extra income earned through sales to Mitra Bali have allowed him to renovate and extend his house and provide a large workshop area for the eight other painters and carvers who have joined him since 2003.