Initiatives and activity around the world of fair and solidarity trade are growing, in step with the growth of our awareness towards issues of the Global South, workers' dignity, cooperation, and respect for local cultures.

And besides, fair-trade products are often more… enjoyable than their conventional counterparts. The pleasure of opening a packet of fair-trade coffee lies in breathing in its aroma, yes, but also in imagining — thanks to the detailed descriptions of production stories on TransFair product labels — the communities of workers who, in the country of origin, grow, harvest and produce the coffee in a healthier environment, both socially and environmentally.

The coffee example is no coincidence. It is the emblematic product of fair and solidarity trade. But its proud top spot is under threat… So say the latest fair-trade sales figures for the third quarter of 2003, recently released. The most significant increase is in bananas — which are set to become the number-one fair-trade product, overtaking coffee's long-standing record! Credit goes to the success of bananas (grown using integrated pest management) in the orange cardboard packs of a major distribution chain in northern Italy, to a new Solidal line from another large chain, to the choices of an international distributor that has included organic and fair-trade bananas in its own "ScelgoBio" private label, and to the leading organic brand that recently replaced all its bananas with the fair-trade product.

Orange juice has almost doubled, rising from a volume of 240,000 litres to this year's result of 400,000 litres!

Good prospects too for Ghanaian pineapples, still an "experimental" product that has gradually found its way onto the shelves of supermarkets and hypermarkets in northern and central Italy, with projected sales in 2003 of around 20 tonnes.

And 2004 looks set to be the year of fresh fruit: mango is expected to arrive and pineapple is forecast to strengthen its position on the Italian market, with a 45% increase on current sales. With the inclusion and establishment of other categories such as rice, fair-trade-certified products are set to see a 50% increase in 2004.

Stefano Carnazzi