When Al Newsom and his wife, Suzy, visited Brazil three and a half years ago, they came back with a business idea and aspirations to help the artists they had met.

The result: Blue Brazil Gallery, which sells fair trade Brazilian art near downtown Raleigh.

The Triangle is starting to see more businesses that describe their wares as fair trade. By doing so, these merchants are pledging that the artists, farmers and laborers who make the products being sold are paid fairly and have safe working conditions.

If you're familiar with the concept of fair trade, it's likely because of fair trade coffee.

In the fall of 2005, three major corporations -- McDonald's, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts -- added more muscle to the movement by announcing new commitments to sell more fair trade coffee.

But as fair trade gains steam, merchants and shoppers are finding it tough to know that the money from their well-intended purchase is ending up in the right hands.

The Newsoms say the artists they work with typically get 50 percent to 75 percent of the retail price.

"In a lot of cases we buy the art work outright," said Al Newsom. "They may need the money right then; they may be in a desperate situation."

The items in the Newsoms' gallery are not certified fair trade -- that is, it has no official stamp of approval from any group. Neither is most of the merchandise at Ten Thousand Villages, the largest fair trade retailer in the country, with more than 100 stores. That's because the only group certifying fair trade products, TransFair USA in California, looks at only food products. It marks those it approves with a black-and-white logo.

TransFair is working on new criteria for certifying textiles and other nonfood products. Until those become effective, retailers can join other groups, including the Fair Trade Federation and International Federation for Alternative Trade, to help authenticate their fair trade practices.

Otherwise, shoppers and retailers should base their decisions on reputation and ask questions if they doubt that an item is really fair trade, said Steve Long. Long owns a Raleigh natural- and organic-food store, Harmony Farms, with his wife, Nancy.

"It's very similar to the process of how do you know something is organic," he said. "It's very easy to ask certain questions that would be no-brainers if they really are fair trade."

Among those questions, Long suggested:

* Where is the product grown?

* Which countries does the item come from?

* And, in the case of coffee, where in the mountains it is grown?

"Then we say, 'Who is guaranteeing these growers are being taken care of?' " he said. "The [correct] answer would be that they absorb the cost of going there and making sure the farmers are being taken care of and [the distributors'] beans are coming from the right place."

Merchants who deal in fair trade are usually more than willing to give that information and more. They want their buyers to know the story behind the object and they want customers to understand why the price is higher.

"If you can't buy a sweet bell pepper at the farmers market for 75 cents, you probably shouldn't be able to buy a T-shirt for 75 cents," said Larry Larson of fair trade coffee company Larry's Beans in Raleigh. "This is a long process. We're a decade away at least before we see fair trade sweaters at Kohl's."

Ten Thousand Villages knows the origin of each item and makes sure the artists are paid at least 25 percent of the retail price, said Caroline Smith, marketing manager for the Raleigh store.

"They say we can trade with you and give you a product in exchange for a constant income," she said. "We want to be a learning experience for them, because we're teaching them how to operate a business."

Many stores, including Ten Thousand Villages, use small signs or tags on items to tell shoppers the stories of the artists who made the products.

"People read the story and they understand why it's a $16 necklace," Smith said. "They see it as a way of giving back."

The growth of fair trade is due in part to the large number of students who are expressing a desire for fair trade products, Larson said.

"There's these gen-Yers who are putting a lot of pressure on companies, and major corporations are paying attention," he said. "They'll spend $150 on a pair of jeans, but they want to know those jeans didn't exploit someone."

TransFair USA identifies three stakeholders in each fair trade transaction -- the customer, the company and the person who produced the item.

"We're completely changing the ways people approach the market, rather than the classic view of the market where you get it as cheap as you can and make a big fat profit," said spokeswoman Nicole Chettero.

Still, being a small business and upholding fair trade principles is difficult.

"Just getting the products was tough," said Kevin Bassler, co-owner of Artisans del Mundo, which sells pottery, handmade rugs and other artwork from Mexico. "We had to talk to several carriers, and a lot of them won't even go to these towns, or the price was ridiculous."

Also, paying the artists and making sure they got their money presented logistical problems, Bassler said.

"We had to have a certain level of trust because ... [the artist] was asking for the money up front," he said. "Moving money internationally is a whole different thing. It's not like there's an ATM on every corner, and a lot of them, because of the inflation, didn't want to put money in the banks because it was devalued."

As fair trade grows, these types of issues will likely become easier to overcome, Chettero said. And the products that are sold as fair trade will continue to grow.

"Hopefully, in the next few years you are going to see fair trade [certified] T-shirts and sneakers and soccer balls," she said.

At Great Outdoor Provision Co., customers can already buy an organic, fair-trade T-shirt for $19.95.

"It's the cheapest T-shirt in our store," said company spokesman Chuck Millsaps. "I just got back from a trade show, and multiple companies are offering fair trade and sustainable, organic and environmental clothing. We're just seeing a wave of that."