About Us

Mango Tree Imports is a family owned and operated business featuring fairly trade art and gifts from around the world.  It is our mission to bring the world into your home while maintaining the high ethical standards of Fair Trade.

Scroll down for more information and photos.

Click here for more photos of the people and places surrounding Mango Tree

Chris was a Peace Corp volunteer in Botswana ’89-’91 and has traveled extensively. Kim met Chris in San Francisco and the two have both traveled and lived abroad. Both our children, were born while living in Paraguay. Living in Paraguay for four years allowed us the opportunity to explore more remote communities, become more aware of cultural identity and understand the unique nature of Paraguayans and their art. Wanting our children to share some connection to friends and their country of birth, we made sure to make connections before leaving.

With two small children to raise and connections to multiple direct sources of incredibly unique art, jewelry, clothing and house wares as well as being fluent in Spanish, Kim started a small Spanish school and joined a local art cooperative. That was 2001 and we continued to expand and grow. In 2006, we were at a point where we needed to move to the next level of entrepreneurship. Our commitment to working directly with artists had led us to Fair Trade and we know that if we were to expand it, it would have to be in this way. That led to the creation of Mango Tree Cultural Center, LLC, a full range art and gift shop featuring fairly traded gifts and art, and the Las Mariposas Language Center on May 5, 2006.

Social justice and cultural awareness are intrinsic goals of Mango Tree. While we are an independently owned and operated retail store, it still needs to meet the financial needs of our family. Living and traveling in remote parts of the world, we understand the need for culture, constancy and money in order for communities to exist. We understand that purchases we make here have a direct effect on the producers in other countries that demand forever lower prices and predatory wholesalers. Because of this, our emphasis on the human aspect of the products we sell is more important than simply the price.

We try to link our purchasing and selling with a certain degree of morality. Conventional trading involves an exchange of goods, physically or symbolically, and assumes reciprocal agreements during that exchange. In the modern world however trade alliances; corporate economies of scales, subsidies and international agreements influence that simple model of trade. Our intention is to make free trade fair, and to educate our customers, friends and families as to the difference.