The Fairtrade Foundation has announced that sales of products carrying the Fairtrade mark are running at an annual rate of £100 million.
The figures coincide with the official launches of the 10th anniversary of the Fairtrade mark and of the Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs from March 1-14, 2004.
Sales of products with the Fairtrade Mark for 2003 totalled an estimated retail value of more than £92m. This was 46 per cent up on 2002 when £63m was spent by UK shoppers.
Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation said: “There has been a quiet revolution taking place, and what is so important is ordinary shoppers in this country are behind it. They have shown that contrary to supermarket logic, they are concerned about something more than price. This has all happened without the massive advertising expenditure employed by most of the big brands in the market.
There will be more than 6000 events around the UK to mark the Fairtrade fortnight. There will be widespread activity around supermarkets with supporters doing taste tests of Fairtrade foods.
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