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First printed in Checkout Magazine
Shoppers target ethical produce
Sales of Fairtrade and organic produce are soaring, reports
Sheetal Mehta
, with growth for both sectors in the region of 30% year-on-year, far out-stripping the market average.
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| Fairtrade stamp: helping people shop with their conscience |
While consumers health concerns can be partly credited for the phenomenal rise in demand, another factor which has come into play is the emergence of the ethical consumer. Increasingly it seems shoppers are making choices about the fruit and vegetables they buy based not only on what they believe is good for them, but also on what they see as being good for the planet and other people.
In fresh produce the choices are easier to make because there is not usually the added issue of a big corporation to consider, says Ruth Rosselson, writer with the magazine Ethical Consumer. With fruit and vegetables the choice is more straightforward consumers just have to look for the Fairtrade or organic label.
While at present the supermarkets are making huge strides in this area the Soil Association and the Fairtrade Foundation acknowledge that it is their support which has helped boost sales there is still the opportunity for them to do so much more.
According to Rosselson, there are a number of concerns supermarkets still need to address. One of these is the price differential placed on organic and fair trade produce, and another is the amount of packaging used.
Waitrose became the first supermarket to sell Fairtrade bananas loose back in October 2005, when it converted all the bananas it sold from the Winward Island into the scheme. The move meant a rise of between 10% and 20% in the number of Fairtrade bananas on sale in the UK.
Last month Sainsburys which sells more bananas under the Fairtrade label than any other UK retailer announced it was going to trial selling loose Fairtrade bananas in 50 stores nationwide, and to convert its Kids pack of bananas to Fairtrade Kids bananas in 469 stores, while keeping the retail price the same, at 99p a bag.
Sainsburys banana buyer, Matthew North, says: We were prompted to do this to give more choice to customers; an added benefit is that there is also a reductionin packaging.
However, he adds: The main difficulty [with selling Fairtrade produce loose] is cashier recognition the person on the checkout being able to differentiate between Fairtrade bananas and non-Fairtrade ones.
According to an IGD report on ethical consumerism, over 50% of Britons are becoming ethical shoppers, paying more attention to where their food comes from. Ethical shopping covers products such as Fairtrade, organic, free-range, environmentally friendly, and those produced by companies with good reputations.
The report says the ethical proportion of the average shopping basket has been growing, and sales of ethical products are increasing at 7.5% per year, compared with 4.2% for conventional products. Fairtrade has enjoyed the biggest increase while free-range and organic have also experienced significant growth.
Julie Starck, senior consumer analyst, IGD, says: Communication and price are key for those looking to buy ethical products, and there may be an opportunity for local and British food to capture shoppers imaginations through ethical purchasing messages. For example, shoppers rank the environment above organic when listing the importance of ethical issues, so organic produce would benefit if its environmentally friendly credentials were spotlighted.
Ethical products are definitely a growth area in food and grocery retailing, she explains. Our research shows that many people say that they would like to purchase ethical products, but do not always follow through when they are faced with the decision in the supermarket.
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