Fairtrade Thoughts

Fairtrade Sales in the UK grew by 43% to an estimated £700M+, while worldwide sales increased by 22% in 2008 according to a report by the Fairtrade Foundation.

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/media-centre/

In addition to being paid a price which covers the costs of sustainable production, producer organizations receive a Fairtrade Premium, which allows additional income for community development projects.

Our stores have also seen a jump in interest in Fairtrade products and I’m happy to say that we’re stocking more Fairtrade products than ever before. That’s in no small way thanks to Lisa, the Kingston store manager, who sits on the local Fairtrade committee and has added considerable focus to promoting and stocking fairtraded products across both Food For Thoughts.

Worldwide, the greatest growth areas were in Fairtrade Tea (which doubled), coffee, bananas and cotton. In our stores we haven’t seen much growth in cotton products but we have seen double digit growth in Fairtrade chocolate!

Your Thoughts on the best Fairtraded brands or products?