I just calculated that fairtrade sales make up about 0.3% of all sales in the UK. Total retail sales in the UK- £285 billion, fairtrade sales £799 million 2009 figures! Only approx figures.

What put me on to the above was some research I’m doing on supermarkets and fairtrade – I happened accross the sales of Tesco – so I knocked up this graphic to illustrate – (It’s hardly beautiful – my lack of expertise at graphics – I will get this sorted!) On the left is the value of all fairtrade sales (800 million approx) and on the right – Teso’s sales – £65 billion approx –

Of course a lot of these fairtrade products will be sold in Tescos – given that 1 in 7 of all our pounds are spent in Tescos!*  and Tescos is hardly committed to fairtrade – this gives you something of the lack of impact faitrade has relative to all trade in the UK .

I think this is especially relevant at the moment – what with UK AID budget under review – which is approx. £8 billion a year. These figures give you some idea of how much more important trade is than aid in terms of money – and just how much of a shit the British public couldn’t give about fairtrade!

It’s actually  fairtrade fortnight at the moment – go out and buy something with the label! Together I’m sure we can make fairtrade 0.4% of the retail market – whoopdedo!

* OK So maybe the comparison isn’t quite fair as there’s overlap, but given that the FT figure is so small, I don’t think this detracts from the point I’m making – the difference is still stark however you want to modify things to take account of this!