Welcome to Fairtrade Fortnight

Consumers continue to support the Fairtrade cause, with volumes of the most popular products – tea, coffee, cocoa and bananas – growing in the past 12 months, leading to greater financial premiums to Fairtrade farmers and workers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean.

Of the four main Fairtrade commodities, coffee increased the most, by 12 per cent. This equates to 255 million more cups of Fairtrade coffee drunk last year than in 2014, while tea’s 3 per cent growth means that 2015 saw 184 million more cups drunk than in the previous year.

Meanwhile, Fairtrade wine and flowers also saw growth in 2015, with sales rising in double digits (wine 17 per cent and flowers 14 per cent).

However, not all Fairtrade foods fared well in 2015 – sugar sales declined by 36 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014, and sales of fresh and dried fruit, nuts and cotton dropped too.

Michael Gidney, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation said, “These figures show that British shoppers remain committed to Fairtrade, despite the turbulence in the grocery market. That’s good news for those businesses offering Fairtrade products. We’re delighted to see increases in most of the categories for which Fairtrade is best known – this means more producers are getting a better deal for the food they grow for us”.

Kassu Eriba, member of Hafurissa cooperative, Yirgacheffe Farmers Cooperative Union said, “Things have improved over the last four years. Before the union formed, the price we got for our coffee was very low and we struggled to survive. We couldn’t support ourselves properly before Fairtrade and life was very hard. We didn’t have electricity, we couldn’t send our children to school. Also the road was bad. Now that Fairtrade is supporting us, we see a very big change. Our life is getting better and better.

“But you must buy more so that we can continue to improve our lives. We are producing coffee and selling it to the world but we don’t get much of the value of a cup of coffee, so please keep buying my Fairtrade beans.”