Fair Trade 2007: new facts and figures from an ongoing success story

A new survey, carried out in 28 European countries plus the United States, Canada, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand, shows that global Fair Trade sales in 2007 have reached a record figure of €2.65bn.

Brussels, 5 December 2008

From modest beginnings in the 1950s, Fair Trade has expanded into a worldwide movement, with more than 450 specialised importing organisations that source a large variety of food and handicraft products from Southern producers.

There are around 125,000 supermarkets stocking Fair Trade products and approximately 4000 Worldshops.

The movement counts on the contribution of about 100,000 volunteers, actively devoting much of their time to Fair Trade, mostly in Europe.

The majority of European citizens recognise the Fairtrade mark and ever more public institutions serve Fair Trade products and acknowledge the invaluable contribution if this innovative business concept to sustainable development, poverty reduction and consumer raising awareness. Fair Trade gives producers a fair deal, not only by paying a fair and stable price for their products. Fair Traders also help their partners in the South to get more market access and to protect the environment. Long-term trading relationships and pre-financing are other important pillars of the Fair Trade system.

The comparison with the first edition in 1995, which covered only 14 European countries and described a rather unknown niche, shows the long way Fair Trade has made since then.

The survey “Fair Trade 2007:– New Facts and Figures from an ongoing success story: a report on Fair Trade in 33 consumer countries” has been carried out by Mr Jean Marie Krier, on behalf of DAWS – the Dutch Association of Worldshops (DAWS), in cooperation with the four main Fair Trade networks*: IFAT – the World Fair Trade Organization, Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), the European Fair Trade Association (EFTA) and the Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!).

The electronic version of the survey is available under: http://www.fairtradeadvocacy.
org/documents/FairTrade2007_newfactsandfigures.pdf
To order printed copies, please contact DAWS by sending an e-mail message to Peter van Mersbergen, (pvanmersbergen@wereldwinkels.nl).

Note to editors:
* The Fair Trade Advocacy Office speaks out for Fair Trade and trade justice with the aim to
improve trading conditions for the benefit of small and marginalised producers and poor workers in developing countries.
Based in Brussels, the office coordinates the advocacy activities of the four main Fair Trade
Networks: IFAT – the World Fair Trade Organization, Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), the European Fair Trade Association (EFTA) and the Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!). These four networks bring together over one million Fair Trade producers from more than 60 countries, 20 labelling initiatives, hundreds of specialized Fair Trade importers, 3000 worldshops and more than 100,000 volunteers.

Fair Trade Advocacy Office
Sergi Corbalán – Coordinator
Rue du Commerce / Handelsstraat 124 – 1000 Brussels – Belgium
Tel : +32 2 217 36 17 – Fax: +32 2 217 37 98 – info[at]fairtrade-advocacy.org

Download this press release as pdf version

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