UK retailers trading fairer

UK estimated retail sales of Fairtrade products reach half a billion pounds as the Fairtrade Foundation calls on business and the public to step up pace of change. Ethical retailers received a boost with the announcement that sales of Fairtrade products have gone up by 81% in the last 12 months. Released to coincide with the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, the figures also revealed that sales have increased to nearly half a billion pounds in 2007 (up from from £273m in 2006).

• Fairtrade bananas are the best selling Fairtrade product with sales topping £150m, an increase of 130%. 1 in 4 bananas sold are now Fairtrade and we eat 3m Fairtrade bananas a day
• Fairtrade coffee sales rose 24% to over £117m
• Items made with Fairtrade certified cotton increased from over half a million to just under 9.5m units
• Fairtrade tea rose 24% to just over £30m. And recent commercial developments mean Fairtrade tea should account for a tenth of tea sold in the UK by the end of 2008

Harriet Lamb, the foundation’s executive director, said that with three in five adults in the UK now able to recognise the Fairtrade mark, knowing how goods are sourced is becoming an essential part of many people’s shopping habits: “The public have a huge and growing appetite for Fairtrade, and increasing numbers of people are buying Fairtrade goods as a practical action to help tackle poverty in the developing world. That’s good news for the seven million people around the world who benefit from the Fairtrade system, as well as those who have been campaigning since the early 1990s to make trade fairer".