Fairtrade retailing is a defininte trend for the future, according to figures published by the Fairtrade Foundation. Fairtrade products retailed for an estimated £493 million in 2007, a staggering 81 per cent increase on sales in 2006 of £273 million across all retail sectors.
More importantly still, in 2007 the real volumes (by weight or number) of produce more than doubled over 2006, which is great news for the producers whose Fairtrade premiums are based on these volumes.
The Fairtrade Foundation's message for Fairtrade Fortnight 2008 (25 February - 9 March 2008) is that, whilst sales of Fairtrade products continue to soar, change is still not happening quickly enough for the millions of the world's poorest farmers who remain trapped in 'trade poverty'. With 2 billion working people earning less than US$2 a day and many of these producing the products we put in our shopping baskets, the Fairtrade Foundation believes that it is critical to increase the momentum for change through Fairtrade in 2008.
"The fantastic increase in sales of Fairtrade goods in 2007 shows the UK's public's huge and growing appetite for Fairtrade," says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. "After years of chipping away, Fairtrade supporters are finally beginning to make some significant impression on the way companies trade. Increasing numbers of people in the UK are buying Fairtrade goods as a practical action everyone can take to help tackle poverty in the developing world. And that's good news for the seven million people, growers and their families, around the world who benefit from the Fairtrade system, as well as the thousands of people in this country who have been campaigning since the early 1990s to make trade fairer".
Sales of Fairtrade products have been increasing by over 40 per cent year-on-year since 2002.
For more information visit the Fair Trade website here
