A UK supermarket chain is to dramatically increase its own-brand fair-trade product range for commercial reasons.
The Co-operative Group discovered that when it switched to selling fair-trade coffee and chocolate it boosted sales of those own-brand items by as much as a quarter.
The Co-operative Group says sales of own-brand block chocolate have increased by 25 per cent since it began offering only fair-trade versions 18 months ago. And since its entire range of own-brand coffees became fair-trade last November, sales of the range have risen 12 per cent.
The figures have persuaded the group, which runs 1700 UK supermarkets, to offer more own-brand Fairtrade products by the end of this year. Its present range of 31 fair-trade products will rise to 62 next year, increasing total fair-trade sales to an estimated £21million ($38m). The group says an extra £1.25million every year will go to growers in developing countries.
The Co-op cut the size of its own-brand chocolate bars when they became fair-trade, enabling them to compete on price with non-fair-trade brands.