New Zealanders are showing their support for farmers in developing countries, increasing their fairtrade purchases by 24 percent in 2011.
Estimated retail sales of Fairtrade Certified products rose to $45.4 million last year, a 24 percent increase on the 2010 figure.
Consumers have been purchasing traditionally popular fairtrade products including coffee and chocolate, but have also branched out with new products including flavoured teas and fairtrade certified iceblocks, Fairtrade ANZ says.
Coffee remained the biggest seller, with sales of $25.3 million – a 40 percent increase on its 2010 sales – and chocolate came in second, with sales of $17.1 million.
Fairtrade ANZ CEO Stephen Knapp says consumers “continue to show just how fair they are in their desire to help give a fair deal to the growers of the products we can’t produce here”.
“Even in times of economic downturn we’re spending more on these products… Kiwis love to buy local but when they can’t they’re making an important ethical choice to choose Fairtrade.”
Fairtrade has also launched an online product locator, to make it easier for consumers to choose fairtrade products: simply search for your area and the product you want to find, and a map is displayed showing which retailers sell fairtrade. Consumers can help to update the database with their favourite stores.
For more information, visit the website
3 News
source: newshub archive
