True Origin
Fair food, fine food is the motto at True Origin. Deliciousness meets ethical trading in their search for ingredients and foodie products, which provide sustainable incomes for producers and their communities across the globe.
So far, these purveyors of fine food have built relationships with smallholder farmers and producers in Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Eswatini, Sri Lanka and India. True Origin (previously known as Just Trading Scotland) gives them a market here in the UK as well as support to develop their farms and communities.
From there grows food security and prosperity, not just locally but for the wider country too. Bit by bit, this adds up to a safer and more sustainable world. The kind of change we’re very much about.
Introduce your taste buds (or those of your foodie friends and family) to Just Trading Scotland and their producers with one of the gift sets. You could turn up the heat with the Spicy Trio Gift Set of sauces and chutney from the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Or finish off your dishes with a grind of flavour-packed salt and pepper blends, in shakers that can be refilled.
These products are just a few among the ever-growing Just Trading Scotland portfolio, which has clocked up 15 Great Taste Awards to date. That’s testament to the team’s knack for finding exceptional food and producers.
True Origin might be based in Paisley, but the motivation for John Riches to start a business championing fair trade came from living in South Africa. John’s wife, Nena, worked as a doctor in rural areas, where they witnessed terrible poverty firsthand.
The couple’s first venture into fair trade food was the Balmore Coach House cafe and shop, back in 1980. Fast forward almost three decades to 2009 and John launched True Origin as a way to distribute more fine fair trade goods to more people.
Ever since their very first shipment of rice, the social enterprise has been gathering supporters as well as partnerships with small producer groups.
Founded By
John Riches
