By the Numbers

I was stumbling around the Internet just now and ran across these figures from the Fair Trade Federation's March 2009 Trends Report. These numbers were cited by Nancy Jones, director of Chicago Fair Trade, in a longer May interview with the blog BuzzFlash.

Some overarching statistics describe Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs):
-78.4% of FTOs are for-profit businesses, up from 54% in 2003
-81% are involved in wholesale/importing, up from 67% in 2003
-13.8% have been in operation for more than 20 years

Some overarching statistics describe the producer partners of North American FTOs:
-76% of Fair Trade Production is done by women
-69% of artisans and farmers involved in Fair Trade are ethnic minorities
-Central America and South Asia remain the predominant source FTO areas

Fair Trade Organizations averaged:
-Nine North American full-time employees in 2008, up from an average of 7.45 in 2007
-Partnerships with 7,049 people in producer communities in 2008
-Sales of $517,384 in 2007, up from $499,893 in 2006

As consumer awareness grows about Fair Trade, conflicting forces influence Fair Trade Organizations. Recent studies indicate that 71.4% of US consumers have heard the term “Fair Trade” and 88% consider themselves conscious consumers, but only 6% could name a Fair Trade Organization unaided and fewer than 10% had purchased an item from an FTO.