Fair Trade — Label STEP Certified Dealer
Fair Trade — Djoharian is a Label STEP Certified Dealer
Djoharian Collection (Art Oriental GmbH, Lohr am Main) is a licensee of Label STEP, the Swiss foundation for fair trade in handmade rugs. Our entry in the Label STEP dealer directory can be viewed here: Label STEP — Djoharian Teppiche.
What Label STEP actually certifies
Label STEP does not certify individual rugs. It certifies companies — importers, wholesalers and retailers. According to Label STEP, the fair-trade requirements apply to a licensee's entire range of handmade rugs, not to a selected line. Licensees are obliged to disclose their complete purchasing and supply chains to the foundation, to permit inspections, and to implement corrective measures where these are required.
The criteria a licensee commits to are:
- Fair working conditions in the weaving workshops
- Fair purchase prices that allow fair wages to be paid
- Action against abusive child labour in line with international standards
- Health and safety protection for workers
- Promotion of environmentally sound production methods
- Acceptance of independent on-site inspections
How the inspections work
Label STEP maintains its own offices in the principal rug-producing countries, including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Iran and Morocco, and carries out inspections in Armenia and Turkey as well. According to the foundation, production sites supplying its licensees are visited at least twice a year by local coordinators, unannounced, and checked against the Label STEP code. Auditors are able to speak with weavers directly and without interference. Alongside the monitoring role, Label STEP also advises producers and supports education and training projects in the weaving regions.
What this means for a rug you buy from us
Our new production — bespoke rugs, designer collections, Berber and tribal pieces — comes from workshops within this framework. When you commission a custom rug from Djoharian, the workshop that knots it is part of a supply chain we have disclosed and that is subject to inspection.
Antique and vintage rugs are a different case, and we say so plainly: a rug knotted in 1890 cannot be retrospectively audited. What we can guarantee for these pieces is honest documentation of origin, age and condition. The Label STEP commitment governs how we source what is being made today.
Why we joined
The Djoharian family has traded handmade rugs since 1967, with roots in the Grand Carpet Bazaar of Tehran. Over that time the trade has changed in ways that are not always visible from the retail floor. Certification is not a marketing badge for us — it is a commitment to disclose our supply chains to a third party and to accept the consequences of what an inspector finds.
