How fair trade hit the mainstream

In an article published on 2 March, 2004, the BBC News Online business reporter Lucy Jones argues that over the past decade Britons have become a nation of ethical shoppers. "Britain is now the second largest market after Switzerland, while fair trade sales are booming across the continent and in the United States."

"A packet of tea with the fair trade premium may cost 40p more than other brands," writes Jones, "but many of us happily pay the extra in the knowledge that tea farmers in the developing world are not being exploited."

Fairtrade has 3% of the UK's coffee market. Cafédirect, one of the first fair trade brands, is now Britain's sixth biggest coffee company and will next month launch a share issue. This coffee is imported in Malta by Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust.

Moreover, in Britain, 4% of bananas are sold at a fair price; one in four Britons recognise the Fairtrade mark; and there are 250 fair trade products in the UK. [Read the full article]

A Quiet Revolution - "Something more than price"

In another article, "Fairtrade produce tempts shoppers with a conscience as sales surge to £100m," that appeared in the British newspaper The Independent on 1 March, 2004, environment editor Michael McCarthy reported that "From a total figure of £2.7m in 1994, UK shoppers with a conscience spent £63m on Fairtrade products in 2002 and £92m last year, and this year the rate has exceeded £100m annually, and is rising rapidly."

Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation which awards the Fairtrade mark to manufacturers and monitors the system, said that "there has been a quiet revolution taking place, and what is so important is ordinary shoppers in this country are behind it."

"They have shown that, contrary to supermarket logic, they are concerned about something more than price. And this has all happened without the massive advertising expenditure employed by most of the big brands on the market." [Read the full article]

On the issue of labelling of fair traded products, IFAT and its members, including Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust, have taken a fundamentally different approach. IFAT has launched the Fair Trade Organisation (FTO) Mark that distinguishes Fair Trade Organizations from other commercial organizations that are involved in Fair Trade. The Mark recognizes and unites Fair Trade Organizations, enabling them to campaign for Trade Justice with greater power.