My business is called Torres Strait Trading
I am 22 year old English girl who lives in Papua New Guinea. I moved to Australia on my own when I was 18, moving here to PNG 9 months ago. TST is run by my partner and I. We get our supplies from local individuals and micro businesses whom make everything by hand and in traditional ways. We operate on fair trade principles and pay a fair price for everything. We sell noni oil, soaps, bilums (traditional bags), bilum clothes (dresses made in the same way as the bilums), moustache waxes(that I make myself) and various other PNG things for health, fashion and vanity. We also are experimenting implementation of VLOM renewable energies in remote villages that are cheap, easily maintained and 100% environmental and sound in cost. We use your vitamin E oil to keep our noni oil fresher (Vitamin e is used to help prevent oils from oxidizing) and are looking into making all natural cosmetics, using your optiphen as a preservative. We like that you ship world wide!!
We started TST after moving to PNG and discovering the exceptional natural products that this tropical country provides, that are produced at an individual village level, such as noni oil and soaps. Our fashion items are beautiful and traditional, like all our products, are made by local people in either villages or urban settlements. All our models are local village girls. We decided that this business was a great opportunity given the rarity of these things in the world, but it is also a chance to do something beneficial for the beautiful people of this country who have adopted us into their families and tribes. PNG is a poor and small 3rd world country. Also, we are building a traditional bamboo and grass house in a remote village in the highlands, as well as a coastal village in Port Moresby, our friends have allowed us to build on their family lands because we have become so close. This is very rare for ex pats, these houses will also be “show homes” for our renewable technologies.