Fair trade booming

The market for fair trade foods in Belgium grew twice as fast in 2010 as the food market in general, according to the annual report by Max Havelaar, the main dealer in the sector. Last year, 200,000 families bought a fair trade product for the first time, bringing the number of customers to 1.65 million, or 35% of Belgian households.

That represents annual growth of 7%, compared to 3.4% growth in food retailing as a whole between 2009 and 2010. The main fair trade purchases were coffee and manufactured products like biscuits, chocolate and cane sugar. A survey by market researchers C-Change revealed that 69% of people said their purchases were guided by social and environmental concerns.

(April 6, 2011)