• Fairtrade International

    Food and Drink Market Research

The Challenge

Fairtrade International is the global organisation responsible for the Fairtrade movement. Covering over 500 types of products globally, the span of the Fairtrade scheme is far-reaching.

Fairtrade International approached us in order to help them understand how the Fairtrade movement is progressing globally, both in its core markets such as Germany, Switzerland and the UK, as well as burgeoning markets including Brazil and India.

In order to determine where the lifecycle of Fairtrade was for each of these markets, we used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data taken from our food market research.

The Food Market Research Strategy

Qualitative: We conducted a number of in-depth telephone interviews with a range of senior buyers from influential retailers such as Co-op, Waitrose and M&S as well as high level contacts within companies including Mars, Divine Chocolate and Chiquita.

Quantitative: Fairtrade International provided us with a substantial amount of historical data relating to sales figures, license holders and license incomes for products and countries. We analysed this data, taking the most important figures, inferring information from them and presenting these findings in a clear and concise manner.

The final output from this project was a report which compiled the findings from the food market research and made a series of high-level recommendations on how they should progress.

Key Services

  • Quantitative analysis
  • In-depth interviews
  • Commercial strategy & recommendations
  • Commercial report

The Results

The recommendations resulting from our study were accepted by the International Fairtrade Council, which led to the start of several commercially-viable projects.

“The lifecycle report has been very useful in stimulating thinking for the strategic review.”

Ian Bretman, Executive Vice Chair
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