Fair Trade Coffee: The UK Experience of Marketing and Related Commercial Concerns - Essay Example

Today the Fairtrade coffee trade is the fastest growing segment of the UK coffee market. (Roberts, James A. 1996.) In 2003 alone consumers purchased 2083 tonnes of fair trade coffee from shops and supermarkets which was almost double the increase from 2002 (Plunkett Research. 2007). Leading brands continue to embark on plans to expand their presence on Britains high streets and is now extending beyond urban areas, (Plunkett Research. 2007) and also penetrating towns and provincial regions. By 2003, the branded coffee chain segment claimed a 28.

2% share of total coffee shop outlets nationally and a 30% share of sales value. Forecast growth is anticipated to increase this to a 39% share of outlets and a 43.6% share of sales value by 2008. (Plunkett Research. 2007)Fair trade as a concept goes back to 1860 and but only in 1988 did it appear as a marketing response to the social and economic injustices through the name, Max Havelaar, as the first certified Fair Trade brand. Roberts, James A. 1996.).Despite the interval of over a century but the past decade especially in the United Kingdom has quickened the pace of the Fair Trade movement .

(Plunkett Research. 2007) Particularly we have organizations like Oxfam and ‘Traidcraft’ in the UK working to promote the fairly traded products, especially coffee, which how have achieved noticeable market penetration. (Roberts, James A. 1996.) My Paper argues that this, in fact, indicates a degree of consumer acceptance in which the ethical attribute offsets price sensitivity. Apart from the fact that the initial concern with the exploitation of human beings in conditions little different from slavery has evolved to take in wider ethical concerns and mechanisms for changing the structures that perpetuate injustice, Fair Trade has now reached the point where its essential nature in the commercial and marketing context can be articulated.