Staggering Rise In Fairtrade Sales

Sales of Fairtrade foods have more than doubled over the past three years and Fairtrade brands now account for 14% of the total UK roast and ground coffee market. The British drink 1.7 million cups of Fairtrade tea, coffee and cocoa each day and eat 1.5 million Fairtrade bananas a week.

No surprise then that Trust Your Taste is the theme for Fairtrade Fortnight 2003, to be launched at a Fairtrade Breakfast today at top London restaurant The People’s Palace. The Breakfast will be hosted by George Alagiah, Patron of the Fairtrade Foundation; among the guests will be TV chef and food writer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, food industry representatives and Fairtrade producers from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs from 3-16 March, will see more than 4,000 events around the country to encourage shoppers to try Fairtrade foods. Highlights include a Fairtrade Pancake Race with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and TV chef Michael Barry, a Fairtrade Breakfast hosted by Ken Livingstone, and a Coffee Question Time with Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt and Nicaraguan coffee farmer Blanca Rosa Molina.

Fairtrade Fortnight will also see tastings and promotions at stores including John Lewis in London’s Oxford Street, branches of major supermarkets, Pret a Manger and Starbucks. Farmers who supply the Fairtrade market will be on hand at many of the events to meet the public and speak about their experiences.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says "I like to buy food produced by people with names – not the faceless multinational corporations. Here in Dorset, that means Farmers’ Markets and local farm shops. But for more exotic ingredients, Fairtrade gives me the same kind of guarantee of responsibility and traceability."

"Only the best quality goes into our Fairtrade coffee," says Blanca Rosa Molina, a coffee grower from Nicaragua. "Buy our coffee because it is the best quality, not because we are poor farmers."

Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, says "By choosing Fairtrade products, consumers are making a real difference to the livelihoods of some of the poorest farmers in the world. At a time when coffee prices in particular are at such low levels this can make the difference between simply existing and having a sustainable future. The fact that we recently launched an initiative in the DTI to ensure Fairtrade products are available throughout the department is testament to the quality of Fairtrade products."

For more information, contact The Fairtrade Foundation Press Office on 020 7405 5942 or mobile 07770 957 451 – or see www.fairtrade.org.uk .

Notes to Editors

• The Launch of Fairtrade Fortnight 2003 takes place at The People’s Palace in The Royal Festival Hall, at 9.15 AM on Monday 3 March.
• Fairtrade is a trading partnership that seeks greater equity in international trade by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised farmers and workers in the developing world. Regular inspection and audit ensures the producers meet the Fairtrade standards of a democratic and participative structure where the Fairtrade premiums are used to improve living conditions or the working infrastructure.
• More than 100 retail products now carry the FAIRTRADE Mark, including coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snacks and biscuits, sugar, honey, fruit juice and fresh fruit. Fairtrade products are also offered by more than 25 nationwide catering suppliers.
• The British public drinks 1.7 million cups of Fairtrade tea, coffee and cocoa each day and eats 1.5 million Fairtrade bananas a week. Sales of Fairtrade foods have more than doubled over the past three years and Fairtrade brands now account for 14% of the total UK roast and ground coffee market. In 2002 the retail value of Fairtrade food sales in the UK reached £62.6 million.
• Fairtrade products have won a number of awards for quality. These include: a Q award at the Quality Food & Drink Awards 2002 for Sainsbury’s own-label Fairtrade Tea; Best Organic Coffee at the Soil Association Organic Food Awards 2002 for Percol Guatemala Fairtrade Ground Coffee; and in the first Bolivian coffee cupping competition, three of the ten finalists were Fairtrade registered producer groups.
• The Fairtrade Foundation certifies and promotes Fairtrade. It was set up in the early 1990s by agencies including Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam and the World Development Movement to respond to the human consequences of collapsing world commodity prices. The first FAIRTRADE Marked product, Green and Black’s Maya Gold chocolate, appeared on the supermarket shelf in 1994; Cafedirect coffee followed soon after.
• Pictures are available of Fairtrade products and producers.