Fairtrade food Caroline Stacey People in the UK now buy more Fairtrade goods than people in any other European country. But what's Fairtrade all about and who actually benefits? Fairtrade Fortnight is the ideal time to find out - it runs from 25 February to 9 March in 2008.

In this article

Fairtrade produce Supermarket leap Fair trade certification

How farmers are paid Countering criticism

Who benefits? Have your say

Fairtrade food has gone from marginal to mainstream. The Fairtrade logo is now widely recognised and has made a real impact on shop shelves as more foods become certified and supermarkets make a greater effort to stock them.

In 2003 there were 150 Fairtrade products. Now there are 1,000 food items, as well as the cotton clothes, footballs and flowers that have blossomed since.

Coffee was one of the first Fairtrade products and is the fastest-growing (sales grew by 90% between 2003 and 2005). There are more than 70 varieties of Fairtrade coffee beans, as well as ground, decaffeinated and instant coffees.

Mangoes and pineapples were joined by other tropical fruits, sugar, honey, rice, wines, quinoa, spices and nuts. Now there are mueslis, cakes and biscuits, smoothies, marmalade, muffins and many more treats made with Fairtrade ingredients.

This year, look out for Liberation nuts. While most peanuts come from large farms in Argentina, the US and China, Liberation's peanut and cashew farmers in Africa, Latin America and Asia part-own the new company.

The amount British shoppers spend on Fairtrade products has been doubling every two years. In 2007 it amounted to more than £400 million in the UK. That money has brought stability to more than 7million people - farmers, farm workers and their families - in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Among UK supermarkets, the Co-op has been in the vanguard of Fairtrade, boasting the widest range of products, including 16 wines from South Africa, Chile and Argentina. During Fairtrade Fortnight Co-op stores knock 20% off their own-label and branded Fairtrade products.

All Marks & Spencer's tea and coffee, as well as the coffee in its Café Revive coffee bars, is now Fairtrade. Sainsbury's sells only Fairtrade bananas and all its own-brand tea has been Fairtrade since the beginning of 2008. Waitrose too sells only Fairtrade bananas, and the Co-op stocks them in every one of its 3,000 stores. Along with mangoes, bananas and pineapples, the Co-op also introduced the first Fairtrade grapefruit in 2008.

Thanks to the wide availability of Fairtrade foods, UK consumers buy more Fairtrade produce than people in any other European country.

The Fairtrade mark is an internationally recognised labelling system which in Britain is administered by the Fairtrade Foundation. The Fairtrade Foundation is part of a trade justice movement that would like to see fundamental changes in trading relations between richer and poorer nations. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has urged people to buy only Fairtrade chocolate as a way of ending labour abuses in Africa.

Fairtrade is not the only 'ethical' label to be found on coffee and tea. Some of the biggest food brands, such as Unilever's PG Tips, are moving towards more ethical and environmentally responsible practices, working with US-based conservation charity Rainforest Alliance.

Because of the scale of these businesses, the development affects a large number of farmers and plantation workers whose working and social conditions are improved with the extra money they're paid for more-sustainable tea and coffee production. However, unlike Fairtrade, this certification scheme does not give producers the security of a guaranteed long-term minimum price should market value drop.

You'll find the Fairtrade logo on a few products from major food companies too, such as Nescafé Partners' Blend coffee. Many shoppers prefer to buy from companies such as Cafédirect, which are only involved in fairly traded food and drink. Cafédirect has a 35% share of UK Fairtrade tea and coffee sales.

In developing countries farmers' livelihoods are at the mercy of fluctuating crop prices. The Fairtrade Foundation guarantees farmers a long-term fixed price for their crop, whatever the ups and downs of the world market. The scheme also pays a social premium to be invested in community projects such as health-care programmes, schools and adult literacy.

If the world market price goes above the Fairtrade minimum, farmers with a fair trade agreement must be paid the higher price, plus the agreed Fairtrade premium. Most Fairtrade-certified farmers and producers sell their crops both on the fair trade market and the conventional market.

The more Fairtrade foods we buy, the more of their crops they can sell for a fair price. When you buy Fairtrade goods the farmers will already have been paid for their crop so sales ensure they will continue to find a market for what they grow.

There are sceptics who regard fair trade as unfair interference that encourages overproduction of certain crops and makes farmers dependent on hand-outs. Most fair trade agreements are with cooperatives of small farmers; the fair trade sceptics consider it ineffective at helping other systems and believe that it holds back mechanisation.

Other critics say that shops are profiting from conscience-salving customers who are willing to pay more for Fairtrade goods and that not enough of the money reaches the farmers.

Fairtrade isn't responsible for overproduction of coffee, for example, counters Ian Bretman of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), the Fairtrade monitoring body. Overproduction can happen when investment is made to encourage a country to develop a crop, as the World Bank did in Vietnam more than a decade ago, leading to a global slump in coffee prices in 2001.

Bretman insists that, contrary to the free trade argument, fair trade agreements don't trap farmers by subsidising unprofitable production; they help farmers invest in improving quality and diversifying into other crops. Indeed, the standard of Fairtrade produce has improved; it's the quality as much as the Fairtrade premium that shoppers are paying for.

Fair trade agreements have traditionally been made with small farmers, Bretman agrees, but depending on the part of the world and the crop, agreements will be according to which system is most appropriate.

Accusations that supermarkets take an extra cut for Fairtrade foods are hotly denied by all concerned

Accusations that supermarkets take an extra cut for Fairtrade foods are hotly denied by all concerned. If anything, and certainly during Fairtrade Fortnight, supermarkets may take a smaller percentage on Fairtrade produce in order to promote it (reductions on Fairtrade foods don't affect the farmer).

Shoppers can be sure that the few extra pence they pay for Fairtrade goods really does go to the farmers, unlike charitable donations which can end up paying for administrative costs. A few extra pence can make an enormous difference - as much as 25% in some cases - to the amount farmers are paid for their crops. 'We are not a charity scheme but a way of changing the way trade happens,' explains FLO's Bretman.

Complaints that Fairtrade food is expensive are often made because like foods aren't being compared with like. As more food is fairly traded, economies of scale are bringing down the cost of Fairtrade foods.

Buying Fairtrade food is a way of exercising consumer power to make a positive contribution to the lives of those who produce the food we enjoy. Ultimately, its supporters hope to effect changes in the way trade with poorer countries is done.

Updated February 2008.

How does Fairtrade fit into your shopping basket? Do you make the conscious choice to go with the logo wherever possible? Are there certain products you buy Fairtrade over others (e.g. always buy Fairtrade coffee, less choosy about chocolate...)? Or would you only take the option when it's on special offer? Have your say and read other people's opinions on the BBC Food message board.