Leading article: Fair trade is growing – and working

Fair-trade products will never be the answer to the structural inequalities in the relationship between rich nations and the developing world. But the latest figures show that fair trade is mushrooming all around the world – nowhere more than in the UK where sales of fairly traded goods last year rose by a staggering 70 per cent. What was just two decades ago a prophetic alternative espoused by sandal-wearing beardies now has global sales worth more than £1.6bn. Its projects today touch the lives of seven million people, for the better, across the developing world.

This is an extraordinary story, and a good news one. Fairly traded products 20 years ago were available only from pioneer organisations such as Traidcraft. There was a limited number of products, starting with dodgy-tasting Nicaraguan coffee. And the only people who bought them were political and church activists. Today the Fairtrade mark has turned supermarkets into the driving engine of fair trade; all bananas sold in Sainsbury's are now Fairtrade, so are all sweet in Morrisons, and much more. The quality of products is high, often of gourmet standard, and the range has broadened to include fresh fruits, juices, flowers, wine and cotton. Sales topped £493m in the UK alone last year. They were up 46 per cent in the United States. The market is growing rapidly elsewhere.

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There have been numerous signals of the maturing of the movement. Tate & Lyle announced this year that it was to convert its entire retail sugar range to Fairtrade in the largest fair-trade switch every made by a UK company. Retailers such as B&Q have gone to great lengths to set up support groups to enable its suppliers to meet fair trade's higher standards. A fair-trade site is being launched by eBay. And fair trade has been dignified with an ideological attack by the Adam Smith Institute, though most of its arguments were specious or badly informed.

The dichotomy of "free trade versus fair trade" is a false one. If poor nations are to be enabled to trade their way out of poverty, big changes have to be made before the faltering Doha trade talks finally collapse next month. Free trade is better than protectionism but free trade is not on offer at present, only trade weighted towards the rich. Fair trade is a useful corrective in that – as seven million people in 58 developing countries will testify.