30 July 2007
 
Figures published this week by FLO International, the global umbrella Fairtrade standards body, reveal that sales of Fairtrade certified bananas in 18 countries in 2006 reached over 1% of total world trade in the fruit. The figure of 135,763 tonnes for the year is 31% up on 2005 sales.

There are now three European countries where Fairtrade bananas can definitively be said to have broken out of a market niche and become "mainstream". In Switzerland, where the two major cooperative retailers have shown long-term commitment to Fairtrade, labelled bananas now account for over half the national market. In Finland, sales reached 11% of the national market, thanks particularly to the Siwa retail chain's commitment to sell only Fairtrade.
 
In the UK, the world's fifth biggest banana market (after the USA, Japan, Germany and Russia), Fairtrade banana sales accounted for 8% of the total market in 2006. However, since J Sainsbury's announcement at the end of the year that they would be going 100% Fairtrade by July 2007, sales have leapt to close to 20%. A second supermarket chain, Waitrose, followed Sainsbury's lead.

The total Fairtrade premium going back to small growers' associations and plantation workers in 2006 was worth nearly 7.5 million US dollars (£3.8 million).