Ethics on the high street: how Fairtrade changed lives

Why isn't everything Fairtrade? We could have Fairtrade computers, Fairtrade furniture, Fairtrade cars - couldn't we?

Nice thought, says Mark Varney, business development manager for the Fairtrade Foundation, which licenses the hugely successful Fairtrade mark in the UK, but high-value consumer items such as electronics are "outside the scope of our vision at this time".

Well, you can't blame people for wondering. It's 20 years since the first Fairtrade consumer guarantee label was launched - in the Netherlands, on Mexican coffee - and since then, the concept has spread from coffee and chocolate to bananas, jeans, rugby balls and dolls' clothes. In the UK, where the Fairtrade mark was launched in 1994, it can now be found on more than 3000 different products, including more than 50 brands of coffee and 30 brands of tea, creating a market worth £300m.

In July last year, a survey revealed that most adults (57%) recognised Fairtrade labelling. There are now more than 300 Fairtrade towns, villages and council areas across the UK, including 36 in Scotland. In these communities, all councils must serve Fairtrade coffee and tea in offices and canteens, and Fairtrade products must be readily available in local shops.

Many will carry the Fairtrade mark, an independently verified label which appears on products as a guarantee that producers in developing countries are getting a fair price for their work. Producers receive an extra premium to be invested in social or economic projects, the idea being that they should be able to do more than subsist, but provide a better, more stable living for their family with the prospect of advancement.

The standards that producers must meet are set by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations (FLO) International, which is funded by contributions from development charities and from member and producer organisations, who pay a small certification fee. FLO co-ordinates Fairtrade labelling in more than 20 countries. A sister company, FLO-cert, inspects the producers through annual checks and ongoing monitoring.

Worldwide, Fairtrade-certified products were worth £1.1bn in 2006, a 42% increase on the previous year. It is estimated that more than seven million people in 58 developing countries now benefit from the labelling system.

The Fairtrade banana is the icon of the movement and its story is chronicled in a new book, Fighting the Banana Wars and other Fairtrade Battles by the executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb. In industries notorious for a lack of union rights, poor working conditions and a heavy use of pesticides, the Fairtrade movement has created a commercially-successful alternative model of doing business. Bananas are now the biggest Fairtrade commodity.

The huge expansion of bananas and other Fairtrade foods is down largely to getting the big supermarkets on board. Sainsbury's and Waitrose have started stocking only Fairtrade bananas, while the Co-op has switched all its own-brand chocolate and hot beverages to Fairtrade only.

"We hugely welcome that shift," says Varney, "but that's not to say that some retailers can't do more."

It's not as if the supermarkets are being asked to be charitable. These products hold their own alongside other products, which is essential to the success of the enterprise. "We believe that Fairtrade has to work commercially, because if it doesn't, it's not sustainable," says Varney.

Certainly, retailers have no trouble shifting Fairtrade stock. In 2006, sales of Fairtrade cotton doubled, as did sales of cocoa. Coffee sales went up more than half, tea by two-fifths and bananas by a third.

What's next, then? Fairtrade labelling is geared up for primary agricultural commodities. After bananas, coffee, tea and cereals, cotton was launched in November 2005. "We are in a period of review, looking at other primary commodities where the Fairtrade mark could work," says Varney. Silk, jute and soya are possible future additions. And there's much more scope in the existing markets. For instance, Britons eat £1bn-worth of chocolate every year, so the Fairtrade cocoa market has plenty of room to grow.

One of the confusing factors for consumers, of course, is that Fairtrade-marked goods often sit on the shelves alongside other goods claiming to be "ethically sourced".

Varney says: "Because a product hasn't got the Fairtrade mark doesn't mean it's unfairly traded - but the key guarantee is the Fairtrade mark."

There is another mark for organisations, not products - the Fair Trade Organisation mark, launched in 2004 - that can be used by registered members of the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT). This mark is designed to show that standards are being met regarding working conditions, wages, child labour and the environment. IFAT is now working with FLO to develop a system for labelling non-food products such as handicrafts, which fall outside the scope of the Fairtrade mark.

A good place to see the wide range of goods available is the Fairtrade experience, which will have stalls selling clothes, cosmetics, handbags, food and drink. Among many Scots exhibitors will be Glasgow's ethical boutique Bolshie clothing, Leith-based Muirneag, which stocks original artwork, wall hangings and crafts, and Haddington's Earth Squared.

For all its success, the Fairtrade story is far from over. "2007 was a phenomenal year of growth for Fairtrade bananas, with, for example, one in every five bananas bought from supermarkets now Fairtrade-certified," says Harriet Lamb. "On the other hand, this means four in five bananas still aren't Fairtrade, and we're determined to change those odds."