Fair trading up

Shoppers are flocking to buy foods guaranteed to give Third-World farmers a better deal.

Demand for the Fairtrade goods has more than doubled over the past three years, organisers announced today.

UK sales of Fairtrade products, made using ingredients which guarantee farmers and producers a better deal, rose from £21.8m (€32m) in 1999 to £59m (€86m) last year.

The figures were released on the eve of Fairtrade Fortnight which starts on Monday.

The Fairtrade Foundation, which certifies and promotes products which meet internationally recognised standards of fair trade, said Fairtrade coffee now accounted for 14% of the total market in the UK.

The growth in sales has been possible in large part to supermarkets increasingly deciding to sell Fairtrade products.

Sainsbury’s now sells around one million Fairtrade bananas each week and has own-brand coffee, tea, and chocolate which carry the Fairtrade certification mark.

Last November the Co-op supermarket chain announced it was switching all its own-brand chocolate to Fairtrade.

More than 100 products now carry the Fairtrade Mark to help shoppers easily identify them. A new mark was launched this year.

The Fairtrade Foundation said retail sales of Fairtrade coffee in the UK rose from £13.7m (€20m) in 1998 to £18.5m (€27m) in 2001.

Fairtrade bananas, the next best-selling product, almost doubled in a year from £7.8m (€11m) in 2000 to £14.6m (€21m) in 2001.

Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “Rising sales figures show that the public not only trust the Fairtrade Mark but trust their taste too.”

An anticipated 4,000 events have been organised across Britain as part of Fairtrade Fortnight to encourage shoppers to try products.

British television chefs Clarissa Dickson-Wright, Anthony Worrall-Thompson and Ainsley Harriott are among those supporting the event.

Highlights of the fortnight include a pancake race with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and a Fairtrade breakfast hosted by London Mayor Ken Livingstone.