Fairtrade cakes on the increase
Fairtrade products by 2012 worth £2bn
The Fairtrade Foundation wants the UK market for Fairtrade products to reach £2bn a year, four times the current level, by 2012, according its recent report Tipping the Balance. It also wants to boost awareness of Fairtrade certification with 75% of people in Britain recognising the Fairtrade mark and its significance over the same period.
Awareness of Fairtrade certification is already growing; rising from 57% of respondents last year to 70% this year, according to the organisation's survey published in May. Awareness of Fairtrade sugar doubled from 6% in last year to 12% in 2008. This should increase further after Tate & Lyle's announcement that it hopes to convert its retail cane sugar range to Fairtrade by the end of this year.
The number of Fairtrade bakery products has increased significantly, bakers are using a range of Fairtrade ingredients including mostly sugar and cocoa but also raisins, nuts and dried fruits.
Devine Chocolate, co-owned by Kuapa Kokoo, a Ghanaian cocoa farmers' cooperative, now produces cookies and baked goods. In a statement issued last month the company announced the launch of mini chocolate chip cookies, brownies and muffins made from Divine 70% dark chocolate. Also there are now five Fairtrade-licensed Eccles cakes, three with Hardens Foods Ltd, added the spokesperson. All the Eccles cakes merit the right to use the Fairtrade mark through their use of Fairtrade sugar.
Hardens Foods also produces Fairtrade flapjacks as well as a range of chocolate cakes, shortbreads and cookies, according to the company's website.
Bakery products fall under the Foundation's composite category, whereby the ingredients are a mix of Fairtrade products from developing countries and others sourced more locally.
Any product may carry the Fairtrade mark if more than 50% of its total ingredients (calculated by dry weight) are sourced from Fairtrade-certified producer organisations
But if the Fairtrade certified ingredient content is less than 50%, the product may still be eligible if it has one significant Fairtrade ingredient that represents more than 20% of the product's dry weight.
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