Dominique Patton
Business Daily (via AllAfrica)
June 05, 2008
Global sales of fairtrade products jumped by 47 per cent last year, as ethically produced flowers, coffee and other goods reached new markets.
Consumers spent more than 2.3 billion on fairtrade goods during 2007, shows a new report from the fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO), with premiums earned on the products going to more than 1.5 million producers and workers in 58 countries.
Sales have grown especially fast in fairtrade juices, which have almost quadrupled. Fairtrade bananas have increased by 72 per cent while coffee, the first and one of the most established fairtrade products, increased at a steadier pace of 19 per cent.
The rapid growth in demand for fairtrade goods is part of a rising trend in ethical awareness in the West. The fairtrade label can only be applied to products that have been certified as ethical, by providing growers with a minimum price for their crop and a premium that is invested in community projects decided on by growers' committees.
Retail analysts say the trend is here to stay. Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of London-based IGD, says that current concerns about the economy are unlikely to have a significant impact on "ethical" shopping, which is based on "deep-seated beliefs".
"People will not backtrack on these lightly," she told a retail conference in London recently.
Kenya currently sells fairtrade certified tea, coffee and flowers but with the FLO opening a new office in Nairobi in March, growers of other products may also be able to tap into the booming market. One possibility is fairtrade cotton. Sales of the new fairtrade product have more than doubled in just one year, according to FLO.
Clothes made out of the material range from jeans to towels and are now sold in major high street chains such as Top Shop and Marks & Spencer, which plans to use 4,800 tonnes of fairtrade cotton for women's T-shirts in the coming year.
For many products growth is still being driven by expansion into new markets. Fairtrade flowers were sold for the first time in Italy, Sweden and the USA.
But there needs to be further growth of fairtrade sales, warned FLO. Only around 20 per cent of the total production by fairtrade certified producers is sold under fairtrade terms.
"Some groups are still selling just a small percentage of their produce to fairtrade. It is crucial to grow the fairtrade market so that these producers can benefit more," said Raymond Kimaro, chairman of the African Fairtrade Network (AFN), which represents African producers organisations.
The UK and US are by far the most important fairtrade markets.
Comments
Post a Comment
Join the conversation