Ethical Trade Grows and Grows

Its been a good year for ethical trade if the results of two recent sets of figures on the sector are correct. Figures from the Co-Op Bank and from the Fairtrade Foundation both show significant increases in the rise of ethical trade purchases in the last couple of years.

The Co-Op Bank's Ethical Consumerism Report 2010 shows a very rosy picture for the sector as a whole, with most categories showing high levels of growth between 2007 and 2009 - the big winners being Fairtrade, ethical banking and Freedom Foods. Freedom Foods has had a big push in the past year via the efforts of Hugh Fearley-Whittingstall to promote more ethical foods, and its encouraging to see that paying off. While in an ideal world the Freed Its also however great to see a more established ethical trade initiative like on Food market would be shifted to free range, it does at least guarantee standards which are verified by a leading animal welfare charity. Fairtrade defied expectations in the figures - continuing to grow despite the real problems many people are facing through the long recovery from the events of 2008.

The Co-Op Bank's figures run up to 2009, but the rises for Fairtrade appear to have continued into 2010. Figures released from the Fairtrade Foundation show that in 2010 Fairtrade sales rose by 40% in 2010 compared to 2009 - crashing through the £1 billion mark to reach sales of £1.17 billion.

Its not a completely rosy picture however - the Co-Op's figures show that some areas of ethical trade have suffered - of particular note is the organic sector, which declined by 14%. Real nappies also saw a drop - sales of these fell by 25%. The Fairtrade Foundation's figures meantime show a worrying drop in Fairtrade cotton sales. It appears to be the second year in a row where Fairtrade cotton sales have fallen, making this even more concerning. It was never one of the larger Fairtrade commodities to begin with, but growth in cotton sales would benefit so many of the world's poorest farmers - so get out there and buy some people!

It would be interesting to see what the reasons for this continued growth are. As the recession hit, you could almost hear ethical trade's doubters foaming at the mouth waiting for the 'inevitable' collapse of ethical consumer behaviour. But clearly the opposite has happened. Do times of increased hardship help people identify with others around the world? Is ethical trade a market that is still reaching maturity?

Regardless of the reasons however, its great to see the public yet again defying the predictions of some economic nay-sayers and continuing to support those products which are aiming to (little-by-little) make the world a better place.

Ethical Supermarket

Interesting times over at Ethical Supermarket, as the company has been sold to Spark Retail.The business has had a partnership with Spark Retail for a year, with Spark helping Ethical Supermarket with its call handling and fulfillment. The buyout creates a new subsidiary for Spark, named Spark Etail - and Ethical Supermarket's co-founders Andy Redfern and Vic Morgan will serve on the new company's board - so let's hope this is another step towards the ethical message finding a bigger market.