Do shoppers still care about Fairtrade?

Do shoppers on their weekly grocery shop really give a fig about farmers in the developing world? It’s a fair question, given our revelation today that sales of Fairtrade certified goods in the supermarkets have crashed 4.7% on volumes down 7.6% in the past year [Kantar Worldpanel].

Relax. We still care. In an exclusive YouGov poll for The Grocer , 55% of respondents said they’re likely to be influenced by the presence of the Fairtrade mark on a food or drink product. That might be down from the 59% who said they would’ve been influenced when we conducted the same poll a year ago, but that’s still a significant number of us who claim to support the movement (although it’s interesting that this year more people say they’d be influenced by the Red Tractor logo, perhaps suggesting our concerns now lie closer to home). 

The Fairtrade logo is also the most recognised ethical certification mark in grocery, with 86% of respondents claiming to have seen the movement’s logo before, up from 84% a year ago. At the opposite end of the scale, recognition of the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil on pack trademark remains pitifully low at 3% and recognition of the UTZ mark has declined, despite a number of big manufacturers including Nestlé achieving UTZ certification.

Awareness of the Fairtrade movement and its goals remains high, with 73% claiming to have a good or fair understanding of what the Fairtrade Foundation stands for and does, down from 75% a year ago. And despite recent negative publicity, including an Oxfam report that claimed workers on Fairtrade plantations on average received no more than workers on non-certified estates, belief that the Foundation is achieving its aims remains high at 47%. 

So shoppers do still give a fig about Fairtrade, it’s just it seems our wish to buy ethically sourced goods isn’t quite as strong as our desire for a better deal.  As we reveal in our Focus On: Fairtrade, out today, the flight to the discounters, where Fairtrade goods are underrepresented, is a key reason for the decline in Fairtrade sales. Maybe it’s time Aldi and Lidl started giving more of a fig about Fairtrade too.

Download the full results of our survey here.