Supply Not Meeting With Demand For Fairtrade Foods

The growing demand for fairtrade goods in the supermarket is not being met. As a result, UK retailers are missing out on billions of pounds of sales, according to a new survey. Fairtrade products have emerged as the most popular category in the growing ‘ethical’ consumer goods market, but it is a long way from fulfilling its potential because supermarkets are grossly overlooking its appeal and potential.

A survey by Fruit Passion, which produces a range of fairtrade fruit juices, found that shoppers were nearly twice as supportive of fairtrade goods than organic produce. Forty-one per cent of consumers questioned across the UK said fairtrade produce was their top priority, compared with 23 per cent for organic produce.

Despite fairtrade being of a high priority, fairtrade sales of just over £230 million lag far behind that of organic sales, which amount to £1.2 billion a year. Current predictions suggest that fairtrade sales will reach around £550 million in five years’ time, but this is still less than half the present level of organic sales. While fairtrade sales have been gathering momentum, having more than doubled in the past four years, the size of the potential market appears to be much larger with one person in three being happy for everything in their shopping basket to carry the fairtrade label.

The report revealed that cost was not the inhibiting factor of a potential fairtrade boom. More than 65 per cent of people said they would expect to pay between 10 and 30 per cent extra on fairtrade products, but the average increase is generally much lower at around five per cent more.

It was lack of choice and availability that was given as a key reason why shoppers are not buying more fairtrade products. Others said that there’s insufficient information about the farmers or producers supported by the product.

Supermarkets are now beginning to close the gap between organic and fairtrade with the introduction of new products, but there is a great disparity in the number and choice of goods offered in both categories. Tesco currently stocks 14,000 organic products and only around 100 fairtrade products, while Asda has around 900 organic products and stocks only 55 fairtrade products. Sainsbury’s, which launched a fairtrade clothing range at the end of October, stocks more than 1,000 lines of organic produce compared with 75 fairtrade goods.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s, which claims to be the leading fairtrade retailer, said, “We have seen fairtrade sales increase by 70 per cent in the past year. Our customers are definitely responding to the fairtrade market which has seen a similar growth trend to organic produce this year.” Rob Spencer, marketing and business development director at Fruit Passion, commented, “Retailers have a great opportunity to satisfy consumer demand and in doing so both the retailers and consumers will be doing a tremendous amount to support producers and growers in developing countries.”