Coutts Woman

Fairtrade’s just going bananas!

Last year when Marks & Spencer, the barometer of Middle England, announced its intention to stock T-shirts made from Fairtrade cotton and, later, its plans for Fairtrade denim jeans, it became clear just how far the Fairtrade movement had come.

It was not that long ago that the Fairtrade logo, of a distinctive waving figure captured in a green and blue circle, appeared only on coffee and chocolate, and was mostly bought by open-toe sandal-wearing vegetarians. Now it’s moved into the mainstream.

Today the logo appears on more than 2,000 products, ranging from fruit to spices, flowers and even wine. In the UK it’s estimated the retail value of sales of Fairtrade products in 2005 was £195 million, which was a 40 percent increase on the previous year.

But even this may underestimate the tremendous growth in customer demand for the products. The Fairtrade foundation expects sales to double every two years in line with previous trends. A recent survey by consultants, Mintel, suggested that this year UK shoppers will spend a whopping £2 billion on Fairtrade, organic and locally sourced products, which is an increase of 62 percent on 2002.

Mintel also found Fairtrade to be the fastest growing of all sectors with a 265 percent growth over the past five years. And the momentum shows no signs of slowing. This month the Fairtrade Fortnight, the foundation’s annual publicity campaign, which takes place between February 26 and March 11, is entitled ‘Change Today, Choose Fairtrade’.

Martine Julseth of the Fairtrade Foundation, says, “We are asking people to make small changes to their shopping habits, even at work, because these will make a significant change to the lives of farmers at the end of the supply chain.”

“We are asking people to make small changes to their shopping habits, even at work, because these will make a significant change to the lives of farmers at the end of the supply chain.”

When the major supermarkets want to stock Fairtrade goods you know it’s going to be big business.

At last year’s Fairtrade Fortnight, Marks & Spencer announced it would only sell Fairtrade tea and coffee

Sainsbury’s didn’t wait for this year’s fortnight to announce plans last month to switch all bananas to Fairtrade ones. The move is groundbreaking because Sainsbury’s sells 2,000 tonnes of bananas. That’s about 10 million individual bananas every week. It’s the world’s biggest ever commitment to Fairtrade, and comes just seven years after the first Fairtrade bananas were sold in the UK.

Shortly after that announcement, Waitrose, (which early last year became the first supermarket to offer loose Fairtrade bananas), announced it too was moving to 100 per cent Fairtrade bananas. The joint moves will more than double the volume of Fairtrade bananas bought by British shoppers.

More recently, Marks & Spencer announced it was switching key clothing ranges to Fairtrade – amounting to 20 million cotton garments - as part of its sustainability programme. It will also offer Fairtrade jams and preserves.

The principle of Fairtrade labelling started in the Netherlands. A group of Dutch men worked with a co-operative of Mexican coffee farmers, following various social and environmental standards, and pricing above the market price for their crop. The coffee was imported by a Dutch company, roasted in the Netherlands and sold directly to mainstream retailers across the country. The initiative was groundbreaking because the end users knew where the raw materials came from, and the farmers benefited directly.

Today, the principles are more defined. Farmers, who are generally small-scale co-operatives, are guaranteed a price above the world market price, making them richer and insulating them from the vagaries of the wildly volatile commodity markets. For example, the grower of Arabica coffee beans is guaranteed the higher price of either $1.26 per pound or five cents above the world market price, which last year fluctuated around the $1 mark. Co-operatives are also paid a variable “social premium” which must be spent on projects of communal benefit. With regards to Fairtrade bananas, Sainsbury’s customers will be pleased to learn the price they pay covers the full costs of production for the farmers co-operative, plus an additional $1 per box, (18 kilos), for investment. Over the year, this could add up to an additional $3m to $5m of investment.

Prices are set, and permission is given to use the Fairtrade mark, by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation, a Berlin-based non-profit making organisation with national chapters.

To become “certified” as Fairtrade, a co-operative has to convince inspectors it meets basic environmental and labour standards and has decided collectively what to invest the social premium on.

In St Lucia, a banana-producing island, the Fairtrade premium has paid for sterilising equipment at one of the two hospitals serving the 160,000 population. Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of St Lucia, says, “In this era of competitive global trade, small scale farmers like ours have little or no chance of survival without the kind of market intervention provided through Fairtrade.”

Fairtrade is a productive partnership that benefits seller and buyer, and is putting many producers on the world map.