10 Years of Fairtrade: Sales Reach £100m A Year

On Monday 1 March the Fairtrade Foundation announced that sales of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark are running at an annual rate of £100 million. The figures coincided with the official launch of the 10th Birthday year of the FAIRTRADE Mark and of Fairtrade Fortnight (1-14 March 2004). The theme of this year’s Fortnight is A Taste for Life, celebrating the quality of life Fairtrade means for the producers and the quality of Fairtrade foods.

“Fairtrade, backed by a vibrant social movement of people throughout the country, is now bedding into the mainstream, giving thousands of producers in developing countries the chance to build a better future and to compete in the all too cut-throat global markets.” says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. “The rapidly rising sales prove that consumers do care and are prepared to pay the true price for products they know they can trust, guaranteed by the FAIRTRADE Mark.

Fairtrade Fortnight celebrations kicked off with a breakfast for 250 stakeholders at the London restaurant Mezzo, part of the Conran Group. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, gave a speech and the event was hosted by Fairtrade Foundation patron George Alagiah.

Sales of products with the FAIRTRADE Mark for 2003 totalled an estimated retail value of over £92m, 46% up on 2002 when £63m was spent by UK shoppers. By the end of 2003, shoppers were spending over £2m per week at the checkout on products with the FAIRTRADE Mark, compared with the £2.7m spent in the whole of 1994.

Shoppers can now choose from over 250 products from over 100 companies, and more than 300 catering suppliers nationwide offer Fairtrade products. 10 years ago there were just three companies offering products with the FAIRTRADE Mark - Clipper Fairtrade tea, Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate and Cafédirect coffee.

Some 6,000 events are expected to take place around the UK during Fairtrade Fortnight. There will be widespread activity around supermarkets - with supporters doing taste tests of Fairtrade foods - and also around high street coffee chains.

As a special focus of the 10th year of the FAIRTRADE Mark, the Fairtrade Foundation has aimed to persuade the out-of-home sector to switch to Fairtrade. The Office of Government Commerce issued guidelines on Monday 1 March on how government procurement offices can source Fairtrade foods.

Other institutions are also launching new buying policies to coincide with the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight. The Salvation Army, the UK’s largest care provider after the government, is starting a switch to Fairtrade foods – a move to be rolled out in its 800 centres and supported by TV chef Brian Turner of the BBC TV’s Ready Steady Cook. The Youth Hostel Association (YHA) is also celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight by beginning the switch to Fairtrade tea and coffee in more than 200 Youth Hostels across England and Wales, as is the British Medical Association.

For Fairtrade Fortnight, a host of towns are also gearing up to gain Fairtrade status (see Notes to Editors, 2). Five pairs of cities such as Oxford & Cambridge and Lancaster & York will put aside ancient rivalries to make a joint declaration of Fairtrade status, linked by a webcam, at 1pm on Friday 5 March (See Notes to Editors). Cardiff and Edinburgh will also declare themselves as Fairtrade capitals.

Some of the highlights of the 6000 events around the UK are a traditional boat (gaff ketch) bringing a cargo of Fairtrade bananas from the Windward Islands to Southampton for distribution to everyone from the mayor to hospital patients; a Rich/Poor Banquet in Newcastle; a Mad Hatters Tea Party in Glasgow and Jack Ellis from ITV drama Bad Girls joining a Fairtrade Quiz at Chelmsford Cathedral. Around 40 cyclists will converge on Garstang in Lancashire – the world’s first Fairtrade Town - for a 10th Birthday Party. Universities - including Edinburgh, Nottingham, Swansea, and London School of Economics - will declare Fairtrade status during the Fortnight, joining Oxford Brookes and Birmingham which are already Fairtrade universities.

• The first ever non-food Fairtrade product, roses, was launched on 26 February 2003. Fairtrade roses are available in over 527 Tesco stores. Tesco are launching 30 more Fairtrade products in addition to the 40 Fairtrade products already available in store.
• The Co-op is pledging to double the size of its own brand range of Fairtrade products by the end of this year - the 10th Birthday of the FAIRTRADE Mark. Its current range comprises 62 products, including nine new own brand lines announced Monday. They are organising tastings at railway stations during Fairtrade Fortnight.
• Nearly all other major supermarkets are stocking a wider range of Fairtrade products and Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Somerfield and Safeway are doing major promotional activities for Fairtrade Fortnight. Asda is introducing 30 product lines. Many independent stores are also promoting Fairtrade Fortnight.
• Fairtrade now has 18% of the UK roast & ground coffee market, and over 3% of overall coffee sales.
• Fairtrade now has 4% of the total UK banana market.
• Sales increases, by retail value, in the four years from 2000-2003 were: coffee 121%, tea 86%, chocolate 188%, and bananas 206 %.
• There are now over 250 retail products from 100 companies, including coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snacks and biscuits, sugar, honey, fruit juice and fresh fruit.
• In 2002, an additional £41m went back to producers from Fairtrade sales in the 17 countries that make up the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). FLO coordinating office is based in Bonn, Germany.
• One in four people in the UK recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark, according to a MORI poll in 2003.
• The British public eat a third of a million Fairtrade bananas every day.
• New Fairtrade foods introduced in 2003 include grapes, lemons, oranges, and rooibos tea from South Africa, as well as jams, marmalades, chutneys and a number of biscuit and cake products.

For further information please contact:
Eileen Maybin on 020 7440 7686, mobile 07770 957451 (eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk)
or Abi Murray on 020 7440 7679 (abi.murray@fairtrade.org.uk)

Notes to Editors
1. The five pairs of rival cities declaring Fairtrade status at 1pm on 5 March are Oxford & Cambridge, York & Lancaster, Aberdeen & Dundee, Southampton & Portsmouth and Leeds & Liverpool.

2. To attain Fairtrade status from the Fairtrade Foundation, a city must achieve the following five goals:

The local council must pass a resolution supporting the initiative, agreeing to use Fairtrade products in offices and identify a councillor to work in partnership with the local Fairtrade steering group.
A sufficient number (depending on population) of local shops and cafés must provide at least two Fairtrade products.
The above rule is applied to workplaces and community organisations.
The campaign must be able to demonstrate popular support.
A steering group must be set up to ensure continued commitment to the initiative

3. The Fairtrade Foundation certifies and promotes Fairtrade. It was set up in the early 1990s by agencies including Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement to respond to the human consequences of collapsing world commodity prices.

4. 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. Inspection and audit ensures the producers meet the Fairtrade standards of a democratic and participative structure where Fairtrade premiums are used to improve social conditions or the economic infrastructure.

5. Fairtrade Foundation partners including Oxfam, CAFOD, People and Planet and Christian Aid are planning national actions. People and Planet, the national student campaign group are holding an “Explosion of Action” outside the Department for Trade and Industry on March 12th.

6. The FAIRTRADE Mark is available on the following retail products:

• Fairtrade fresh fruit and vegetables: bananas, mangoes, pineapples, grapes, lemons, oranges, plums, green beans, sweet peppers and new potatoes

Branded Products

• Alara Wholefoods Fairtrade Muesli
• Brian Wogan Fairtrade Ground Coffee
• Cafédirect 5065, Organic Decaffeinated Freeze Dried and Fresh Ground Coffees
• Chocaid Chocolates
• Cocodirect Drinking Chocolate
• Co-op Own Brand Fair Trade Coffee, Chocolate Bars, Fresh Fruit, Chocolate Cake, Sugar, Easter Chocolate Ring Cake, Chocolate Brownies, Chocolate Chip Shortbread and Museli.
• Clipper Fairtrade Teas and Organic Instant Hot Chocolate
• Cotswold Fairtrade Honeys
• Dove Farm Foods Fairtrade Chocolate Biscuits
• The Day Chocolate Company’s Divine Milk Chocolate, Darkly Divine Plain Chocolate, Divine Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts, Divine White Chocolate, Divine Coffee Milk Chocolate, Divine Orange Milk Chocolate, Dubble Milk Chocolate Crisply Crunch Bar and Drinking Chocolate
• Duerr’s Fairtrade Fine Cut Marmalade and Fairtrade Strawberry Conserve
• Down to Earth Fairtrade Tea
• Equal Exchange Organic Coffees, Teas, Cocoa, Chocolate Brazil Nuts, Honey and Sugar.
• Essential Fairtrade Coffees
• Footballs Direct, Fairtrade footballs
• Fruit Passion Orange, Breakfast and Tropical Juice
• Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate bars, Maya Gold Gift Pack and Organic Cocoa Powder.
• Geo Organics Organic Mango Chutney
• Hampstead Tea & Coffee Company Fairtrade Teas
• Johnsons Costa Rica Blend Coffee
• JP Orange Juice
• Morrisons Own Brand Fairtrade Tea
• One World Fairtrade Flap Jack and Shortbread
• Oxfam Organic Cocoa and Fair Trade Chocolates
• Percol Fairtrade Coffees
• Rombouts Fairtrade Coffee
• Rowse Fairtrade Chilean Honey
• Sainsbury’s Own Brand Fairtrade Tea, Coffee, Bananas, Chocolate and Drinking Chocolate
• Starbucks Own Brand Fairtrade Coffee, Coffee Beans and Chocolate
• Somerfield Own Brand Fairtrade Coffee and Tea
• Suma Fairtrade Teas and Coffees
• Teadirect Tea, Organic Earl Grey Tea, Organic Green Tea with Lemon Grass or Cinnamon
• Tesco Own Brand Coffees, Tea, Fresh Fruit, Cookies and Roses
• Thandi (Capespan) Fairtrade Wines
• Traidcraft Geobars, Teas, Coffees, Strawberry Jam, Orange Marmalade, Organic Chocolate bars, Honeys, Chocolate Beans, Chocolate Brazil Nuts, Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Chocolate Ginger, Chocolate Honeycomb, Chocolate Peanuts, Chocolate Raisins, Chocolate Mini Eggs, Sugar and Cookies
• Tropical Wholefoods Fairtrade Snack Bars
• Union Coffee Roasters Fairtrade Coffees
• Village Bakery Organic Christmas Pudding, Christmas Cake, Brandy Butter Shortbread, Fireside Cookies
• Whitworths Fairtrade Sugars

For more details and service sector products, please see www.fairtrade.org.uk

The Fairtrade Foundation, Room 204, 16 Baldwin’s Gardens, London, EC1N 7RJ.

Tel: 020 7405 5942
Fax: 020 7405 5943
Website: www.fairtrade.org.uk
Email: mail@fairtrade.org.uk
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