Swiss buy more fairtrade products

In the past year more fair trade products have been sold in Switzerland than in 2010. Per head of the population 41 Swiss Francs were spent on fair trade products. This is the highest in the world.

The Swiss consumers bought fair trade products valued at almost 330 million Swiss francs. That's 8% more than last year. The supply of products with the Max Havelaar label has also grown: in total there are over 1600 certified fair trade articles available in the retail and catering. This means the supply has doubled in five years time.

Banana's remain the most sold fair trade product. Last year a little less was sold than the year before, but despite that their market share grew to 55 percent. Instead of this the consumers bought more fair trade chocolate and yoghurt. The sales of fair trade chocolate doubled in the last year. According to the Max Havelaar Foundation this was mainly due to an assortment switch by wholesaler Coop.

Together with the turnover of the Havelaar products the revenue of the producers organisation in the developing countries and NIC's for the sales of fair trade products in Switzerland also grew. They increased from 59.8 million Swiss franc to 70 million Swiss franc.