Talking shop - Accusations that the Fairtrade movement is not benefiting farmers in developing countries are incorrect.

Those working with Fairtrade will have been surprised by the recent Adam Smith Institute report, Unfair Trade, which accuses us - and them - of doing more harm than good by intervening in the free market. They will also have been surprised to read that Fairtrade apparently condemns poor farmers to increase their dependency on failed commodities by producing crops that no-one wants to buy. This just isn't the case. The projects we work on together are about enabling farmers and workers to achieve a better, more sustainable future. Fairtrade enables them to choose how they do this: sometimes by improving quality and yields, sometimes by diversifying into other crops, and always by ensuring their children are educated and grow up with more life choices. Of course Fairtrade isn't perfect. Over the past year we've been inviting feedback from our stakeholders as part of a strategic review and we've rightly received a mix of brickbats and bouquets. But ill-informed attacks based on rigid and inflexible dogma are not the way forward. We cannot accept the dismal message that we can't do anything about global poverty and inequality except leave things to the market. Instead our recently announced strategy for the next five years presents an ambitious vision of what we could achieve by building on our successful collaborations. Over the past few years Fairtrade has moved from niche to mainstream; in the next five years we want it to move from being the exception to the norm. In terms of sales, the fresh produce sector has been the star performer in an amazing year for Fairtrade, in which total sales of products certified by the Fairtrade mark rose by 80% in 2007 to nearly £500m. Banana volumes rose by more than 150% to 158,000 tonnes following moves by Sainsbury's and Waitrose to adopt Fairtrade standards on all their bananas during 2007 Fairtrade leapt to a market share of more than 20% in this key product line, while there was a near-50% uplift for other fruits such as mangoes, pineapples and citrus. There is increasing interest from importers and retailers in expanding the impact of Fairtrade for producers in developing countries who supply the British market. This is primarily a response to growing consumer interest in Fairtrade, but is also being driven by people in the produce business who have seen the changes Fairtrade can make to farmers, workers and their communities.