Hi

As you may have gathered my business is run on ethical trade principles which means I pay a fair price to the producers of my products. In effect I pay the producers around 2/3 of the retail price. Obviously the other 1/3 is taken up by import costs including transport/freight, VAT, import duty, customs clearance costs, admin costs, financial costs and a small margin profit for myself to continue in business. I also pay 1/2 the cost of goods at the time of ordering and the other half at collection so that the producer faces no risk should the item not sell. This is my problem. I think you will find that this ratio of money to the producer is far higher than most retailers. I am able to achieve this because I work directly with the producers and therefore there is no chain of middlemen all taking their cut. I hope this answers your question.