The two charts reveal changes in the sales of ‘Fairtrade’-labelled coffee and bananas in five European countries between 1999 and 2005.

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In overview, the standout feature in both charts is that, although sales were substantially higher at the end of the period, this was not due to any uniform increase across the five countries. Rather, the huge increases were primarily driven by sales in just one country – the UK in the case of coffee and Switzerland in the case of bananas.

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Turning our attention first to coffee and doing a quick bit or arithmetic, we can see that total sales increased from 8.1 million Euros in 1999 to 30.7 million in 2004, which is almost a 400% increase. Yet the vast majority of this 22 million Euro increase occurred in just one country—the UK—where sales jumped from 1.5 to 20 million Euros over the six year period.

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A similar situation occurred with bananas. Total sales increased from 20.4 million to 58.4 million, which is approximately a 250% increase—somewhat less than the increased sales of coffee, but still substantial. This time it was primarily driven by Switzerland, where sales climbed from 15 million to 47 million over the period. Interestingly, two countries bucked the trend. They were Sweden and Denmark, where sales actually fell by a small amount.

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In conclusion, the charts show a substantial, but very uneven, increase in the sales of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas in five European countries between 1999 and 2005.