Fairtrade - it's at the supermarket, in the papers and on TV. But how did it get here and where is it going?
• UK retail sales of Fairtrade products are running at £493m per year
• Over 3,000 products are licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark
• 300 towns, cities and villages have been awarded Fairtrade status
• Over 400 producer groups are now selling to the UK Fairtrade market
Images from The Fairtrade Foundation
Matthew Anderson
Department of Modern History
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B12 2TT
MRA711@bham.ac.uk
Despite growing consumer support for Fairtrade it remains surprisingly under-researched. In particular, there is no coherent history of fair trade as a movement.
I am studying the networks that evolved between the main actors: development agencies, religious organisations and co-operatives. My research explores issues that relate to wider themes such as: the morality of consumption, consumer/ producer relations, secularisation and globalisation.
