The use of Fairtrade ingredients in composite products is set to be the next big area of growth, according to the Fairtrade Foundation, which encourages a fairer deal for farmers in developing countries.
Composite products which carry the Fairtrade Mark - items such as muesli, strawberry jam, fresh fruit salads, flapjacks and chocolate chip cookies - involve a percentage of Fairtrade ingredients. Every ingredient that can be Fairtrade, must be and there must be at least 20% dry weight of one Fairtrade ingredient.
“This is a growing area of development in food manufacture and product innovation,” said Mark Varney, business development manager at the Fairtrade Foundation. “Many private label and branded manufacturers and product developers are now looking at Fairtrade and the Fairtrade Mark as part of their new product development process.”
There are more than 1,000 products with the Fairtrade Mark, which comprises a green, blue and black 'waving person' logo, and this number is growing rapidly. According to the Foundation, Fairtrade sales double roughly every two years. The latest TNS Superpanel data showed that in the year ending October 2005 penetration of Fairtrade products in UK households rose from 33% to 40%.
Jenny File, Traidcraft's brand and product marketing manager, said: “Composite Fairtrade products are an important new area for us. Ever since we launched Geobar a few years ago we have seen this sector grow significantly and, as a result, we have added more composite products to our range.”
Steve Osborn, technical manager at Ashbury Confectionery, which makes the Fairtrade Caramel Bar, the Fairtrade Orange Creme Bar and the Truly Irresistible Luxury Chocolate Assortment for the Co-op, began making products carrying the Fairtrade Mark two years ago.
“Sourcing Fairtrade ingredients is great for some of the bigger items such as chocolate and sugar,” said Osborn. “Where it gets difficult is with some of our other ingredients such as sweetened condensed milk which is 45% sugar. No one makes this with Fairtrade sugar.
“Fairtrade rum and Fairtrade vanilla are available but not in the form that we can use. We don't need one litre glass bottles of Fairtrade rum but 25 kilo plastic drums of it. We don't need Fairtrade vanilla pods but Fairtrade vanilla essence. So we are waiting for more complex Fairtrade ingredients - compounds and blends - to become available, and for them to be available in 'industrial' quantities.”