Government to fund fare trade retail |
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| Monday, 25 February 2008 | |
 The British government has announced plans to dramatically increase investment in fair trade as the movement unveils an ambitious scheme to raise British spending on its products by 600 per cent to £2bn in four years. In the first of a two-part funding strategy, the Department for
International  Development (Dfid) has agreed to give an extra £1.2m in funding to the international fair trade accreditor, Fairtrade Labelling Organisations.
The strategy, which also includes £2m in funding from other countries, is to boost the fast-growing retail sector and to introduce fair trade to other parts of Europe. Dfid is also in talks to increase funds to the Fairtrade Foundation, the UK's organisation, to help take fair trade past the £1bn mark by 2010, and £2bn by 2012. Tomorrow the Fairtrade Foundation will unveil figures that show British sales of fair trade goods, which guarantee to pay growers above market prices, approaching £500m, up from £290m last year. The sector has shown annual compound growth of more than 25 per cent in the past five years, though it accounts for only £1 in every £250 spent in the UK. |
