Discovery Interior Trading

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in
Herenstraat 25
Transportation

Discovery Interior Trading, a fair trade wholesaler/importer, is founded in 1995. Since then Discovery aims at creating employment in the field of handicrafts in a number of African Countries.
Peter Chris Kooij is the founder of Discovery Interior Trading (DIT). He says: 22 years ago I dreamed of doing something with my life that would bring improvement for disadvantaged people in Developing Countries. I was in the midst of my law studies when the dream came up and - right or wrong - I decided to finish my studies first before giving in to that dream. At the age of 25 I left for India and volunteered 6 months on 3 different development projects. The journey confirmed my dream: pioneering and helping people attracted me so much! At the end of my twenties, I wrote a plan to stimulate trade with Developing Countries. Since I didn't know much about trade, I decided to get trained on - the - job and got a sales management position in the field of cocoa trade. Lastly as a commercial director of a fruit juices and soft drinks company, I felt it was time for action towards realisation of the plan and I quit my job. Soon after the start of DIT, orders came in for our first products, beautifull giraffes upto 3 meters from Namibia. Moreover a high-end store-chain called Bijenkorf started to order substantially. It gave me confidence for working towards a more professional set up. A second important push came through the cooperation with Fair Trade Holland. We supply them with container loads for the fifth year now. They assist the producers we work for with amongst others packaging advice and new product design.

In the meantime, Fair Trade Organisations in Germany, Denmark, Spain and Italy have become customer, besides many regular customers. We have now become an experienced marketing organisation for about 70 grass root producers in Africa.

Discovery feels we have a responsibility to ensure continuity and growth of business for our producers and one of the means is to internationally market what we have to offer. Discovery employs 3 workers in Holland.
Aims: sustainable Fair Trade

Discovery Interior Trading focusses at trading with handicraft people in Developing Countries at fair prices, enabling them to pay daily bread, school fees, housing etc. Helping to create a sustainable income is in most cases more efficient than charity. We organise product development in order to increase the chance on repeat orders for the same producers. Now about 70 families in Africa live from our production orders.
Working method

We work directly with about different 70 producers, based in Ghana. Less regular contact exists with producers in Burkina Faso, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Producers are pre-financed on order.
Products: interior decoration and gifts

We offer about 2500 different interior decoration and gift items solely from Africa. 1000 product codes are in stock in Holland. We can order products tailor made on customer's demand. Buying prices vary from 1 to 1500 Euros, see the cataloque.