Bananas were the first fruit to carry the Fairtrade marque in 2000 and, in less than a decade, the Fairtrade portfolio has grown substantially to include pineapples, mangoes, lemons and limes, coconuts and grapefruit.
Fairtrade suppliers are reporting mixed sales figures for the year to date, but supporters are hoping that Fairtrade Fortnight will act as a springboard and boost demand in the category.
The promotional event will run from February 23 until March 8, and once again this year’s theme is ‘Make it Happen. Choose Fairtrade’.
The official public launch was an Olympic-themed event in central London on February 22, with sports activities including a Fairtrade chocolate relay race and giant inflatable banana jousting.
New sales figures for 2008 will be announced during Fairtrade Fortnight and are expected to show significant growth in some categories.
“Fairtrade Fortnight is both a celebration of what has been achieved so far and a reminder that there are still many producers for whom Fairtrade makes the difference between a reasonable livelihood and an uncertain future,” says Clive Marriott, commercial manager of AgroFair UK.
AgroFair wants to continue helping more producers to develop a sustainable future for themselves. “Exporting on Fairtrade terms through AgroFair has given many producers access to new markets,” Marriott says. “We are always happy to see producers who are able to diversify their production to make their business more robust, and we are also happy when producers gain enough confidence to supply the market directly.”
A number of retailers are showing a keen commitment to Fairtrade goods. The Co-operative Group is supporting this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight with a series of initiatives, as well as savings of up to 20 per cent on selected Fairtrade products. Fairtrade sales at The Co-op were up 44 per cent in 2008. “In terms of fresh fruit, sales rose 27 per cent, largely buoyed by strong demand for bananas and grapes,” says Brad Hill, The Co-op’s Fairtrade strategic development manager. “Within produce, we sell every type of Fairtrade fruit available, when in season, and we have significantly widened availability of some lines such as oranges and bananas.”
During this year’s fortnight, The Co-op will help to launch a new Fairtrade guide for primary school teachers. Produced by The Co-op College, the interactive resource pack is full of classroom activities to introduce primary school pupils to Fairtrade.
Capespan works closely with The Co-op and has supported the retailer at a number of launch events at the start of Fairtrade Fortnight and thereafter, with tastings and in-store activities.
The exporter has continued to expand its Fairtrade-accredited grower base, particularly in South Africa. According to the company’s John Banks, Capespan has added and attracted newly accredited growers over the past 12 months, but has also lost some sources where the farms have elected to return to a conventional operation.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s claims to be the biggest retailer of Fairtrade products in the UK in terms of sales value, and reports that it is enjoying record demand for Fairtrade among its customers. Annual Fairtrade sales at the retailer total
£139 million and are expected to grow beyond £200m in the near future.
Importers are also keen to further increase their Fairtrade sales. Univeg Katopé handles 13 Fairtrade lines and is looking to add more products to its portfolio later this year. “It can take up to two years to find a new product and grower, and during that time there is ongoing dialogue and a building up of a relationship,” says the company’s Geoff Chappell.
He is confident that further growth can be achieved, both in the UK and Europe. “Univeg Katopé is the foremost Fairtrade produce supplier to many of the UK’s major retailers and we offer customers a full category of products, with a greater continuity,” Chappell tells FPJ.
Limes represents one of Univeg Katopé’s most recent Fairtrade additions. The company began working with a group of Brazilian growers during 2008, introducing limes to both Asda and Morrisons last year.
Asda claims to sell twice as much Fairtrade citrus as other UK retailers and spokesman Neil Nugent says the number-two retailer markets nearly 25,000 Fairtrade limes a week.
Univeg Katopé also has high hopes for Mexican grapefruit. “Our grapefruit growers achieved certification at the end of the season so they only had five weeks to market their fruit in 2008,” Chappell explains. “I am optimistic that more can be done when the season starts again in April or May.”
Moroccan citrus producer Delassus is also hoping Fairtrade citrus sales will take off. It recently introduced Fairtrade to its citrus farms and is now certified under the international ethical marque. “We have explained to our workers what Fairtrade is about and organised Fairtrade policy on our citrus farms,” says Delassus’s Nisrine Boutyabi.
Fresh produce is likely to make the biggest gains of any Fairtrade category this year, according to specialist research company Organic Monitor (OM). “Retailers are realising that they need sustainable supplies and we are seeing initiatives similar to bananas on mangoes, pineapples and coconuts, and to a lesser degree on citrus,” says OM director Amarjit Sahota.
However, although Fairtrade sales have climbed for a number of years, the ongoing recession could have negative repercussions.
Capespan claims its Fairtrade sales had been holding well until around mid-December. Since then, however, the firm has seen a “disappointing decline”, according to Banks. “This has undoubtedly been partially due to the deepening recession and a constant diet of bad economic news,” he says.
In addition, the average household had some £15 less to spend on its weekly shop in January 2009, compared to the same period in 2008, according to recent market research. “This, combined with a growing unemployment figure, must put pressure on Fairtrade products versus conventional ones,” Banks explains.
He points out that packed grocery lines such as tea and coffee have been selling better, claim more shelf space and are being more cleverly marketed than fresh produce. This is partially due to the fact that it is challenging, if not impossible, for some retailers to offer Fairtrade fresh produce year round. In addition, there is not always room in the budget to market Fairtrade fresh produce to the same extent as its tea and coffee counterparts.
According to recent figures, during the first half of 2008, sales of Fairtrade goods rose by 50 per cent, but the rate of growth slowed as the year closed.
Certainly, the weak sterling and difficult economic climate are causing concern, but recent polls reveal that consumers are staying loyal to Fairtrade. Some 92 per cent of consumers say they are willing to pay extra for a product perceived to be ethical, according to Feel research. In addition, a poll by Ipsos MORI concluded that Fairtrade and free range are the two categories best placed to survive the recession.
“We will have to wait and see if there are any long-term consequences of the recession,” says Jane Snell, business development manager at the Fairtrade Foundation. “However, the price differential between conventional and Fairtrade bananas (the best-selling Fairtrade food) is a matter of pence, not pounds.”
According to an Asda spokesperson, Fairtrade remains popular, but with less money in the average pocket, the retailer is noticing its customers are getting savvy when it comes to their weekly shop. “When it comes to the Fairtrade shopper, increasingly cash-strapped customers are making cut-backs on what they see as luxuries, but are still going for Fairtrade for the shopping basket staples such as fresh fruit and vegetables,” she explains.
Chappell acknowledges that Fairtrade sales can suffer when a single product is in direct competition with a conventional product. He explains: “Conventional mangoes can sell from as low as 79p, whereas Fairtrade mangoes need to be priced at around £1.29. With such a wide price differential, you cannot compete, so products such as mangoes are under pressure.”
Nevertheless, Chappell says that with a pack of Fairtrade goods, there is the opportunity for offering flexibility with regards to size and weight, allowing the retail price to be more in line with conventional items.
“The recession could have an impact on sales, but there is a firm core of loyal Fairtrade consumers,” Chappell says. “Generally, unless someone is in real financial difficulty and in danger of losing their job, most consumers are continuing to purchase their food in a similar ethical fashion.”
Capespan is confident that when the recession is finally over, Fairtrade fresh produce will “tick a lot of the consumers’ boxes”. According to Banks, the next step may be a retailer who is brave enough to convert a fresh produce category entirely to Fairtrade (at least for part of the trading year), similar to the innovations seen in the tea and coffee own labels in the early part of the noughties.
As Capespan already helps many of its stakeholders in South Africa with land reform issues, Banks believes that the producer is “ideally placed to assist and develop future Fairtrade sources as and when the market demands them”.
Despite the current challenges, the Fairtrade Foundation says that more than 30 farmers want to achieve Fairtrade accreditation, and the foundation has received enquiries from producers in Brazil, Guatemala and Honduras.
The Fairtrade Foundation is one year into its ambitious five-year strategy, Tipping the Balance, which aims to enable twice as many producers to benefit from selling Fairtrade goods in the UK by 2012.
Those already supplying the UK market should be able to double the proportion of the crop they sell through the Fairtrade system. The foundation wants the UK to spend £2 billion a year on Fairtrade products by 2012 and to ensure that half of all bananas sold in the UK are Fairtrade.
“We want to make sure that there will be a strong market for Fairtrade banana producers and to drive demand for their product,” says Snell. “It is a lengthy process to become certified and there are certain costs involved, so we need to ensure that farmers have reasonable expectations of demand. It is a balancing act of aligning everyone’s expectations.”
One in four bananas bought in the UK is Fairtrade and, according to TNS data, the Fairtrade banana market grew an impressive 42 per cent during the November 2007 to 2008 period. In stark contrast, the conventional banana market has been static and showed only a 0.6 per cent growth in the same period.
Some 60 banana farmers from as far afield as the Windward Islands, Peru, Jamaica and Ghana are Fairtrade-certified, and four banana producers from the Windward Islands attended the launch of Fairtrade Fortnight.
Fairtrade Fortnight will culminate with Go Bananas for Fairtrade, when campaigners throughout the UK will attempt to set a world record for eating Fairtrade bananas between midday on March 6 and midday the next day.
“We have had a great response already from Scotland down to London,” says Snell. “There is a lot of information about what the retailers are doing, but it is also good to show how bars and cafes, schools, universities and workplaces are getting involved in Fairtrade.”
In terms of future sales, Hill points out that more action is needed. “Although the work done by pioneers such as Oké Fruit and The Co-op has helped create a very attractive, commercially viable marketplace for sales of Fairtrade goods to reach a value of £2bn, the sector needs to rely on some big new players to come into the sector, while continuing to back the founding commercial supporters,” he argues.
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