The two tables represent sales figures of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas in five European

countries—the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, and Denmark—within a five-year period

from 1999 to 2004. In general, Fairtrade labelled products experienced positive growth during

the time span.

Coffee sales increased significantly in Europe within the five years surveyed, especially in the

UK, where sales rocketed well over 13 times, to 20 million Euros at the end of 2004. In the same

year, Switzerland also doubled its sales of coffee to 6 million Euro. On the other hand, the other

three countries surveyed—Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden—experienced similar, yet minor, rise

in sales of coffee: between 0.2 to 0.7 million Euros during the same period.

Next, Switzerland enjoyed enormous growth in the sales of banana, albeit on a smaller scale than

that in the UK. More specifically, the five-year period witnessed an approximately 3 times’

increase in banana sales in Switzerland, from 15 million euros in 1999 to 47 million in 2004.

Similarly, there was also a dramatic climb in the value of bananas purchased in the UK and

Belgium: each country reached the selling mark of 5.5 and 4 million euros respectively by the

end of the period. On the contrary, banana sales underwent a decline in Sweden and Denmark,

where turnover declined from 1.8 and 2 million in 1999 to 1 and 0.9 million respectively in 2004.

In conclusion, with the exception of declining banana sales in Sweden and Denmark, the two

tables indicate a positive trend for Fairtrade-labelled products in the five European countries. In

particular, bananas sales in the UK and Belgium increased respectively by 550 percent and

nearly 800 percent within five years—these two figures prove to be the most remarkable rise in

popularity for bananas purchased in the five countries that participated in the survey.