London: 5th Annual Fairtrade Wine Tasting

The 5th Annual Fairtrade Wine Tasting will place at the Fairtrade Foundation offices in London on 21 October 2010. From 11 am to 5 pm, there will be over 100 Fairtrade wines on display to try from Argentina, South Africa and Chile. One will have the opportunity to meet Vernon from Thandi, Tertius Boshoff from Stellenrust, Theunis Van Zyl from Imbuko Winery and Charlet Moses from Fairhills, all from South African wineries.  Also there will be Viviana Michel from La Riojana in Argentina. They will give a personal account of how their communities have benefitted from Fairtrade and the individual Fairtrade projects. In order to understand what Fairtrade really means on the ground, consumers need to hear what Fairtrade is bringing to those growers and farmers on the wineries - and this is the chance to get those stories in person.
 

The awareness of Fairtrade has reached an all time high with over 75 % of consumers in the UK recognising and understanding the Fairtrade mark. Consumer research carried out by Globescan shows that consumers are interested in in-depth stories about the impact that Fairtrade makes on the ground. With over 4,500 products now licensed to carry the Fairtrade Mark and 7 in 10 households purchasing Fairtrade goods, consumers today are making more and more Fairtrade choices, helping Fairtrade sales reach an estimated 800 million £ in 2009, up from 712 million £ in 2008. There are over 460 producer organizations selling into the UK with 872 certified producer groups in the Fairtrade system, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers. Sales of Fairtrade wine continue to grow impressively despite shoppers feeling the pinch, with a 43 % increase versus this time last year. Improvement in product quality and an increase in consumer understanding of the need for the Fairtrade system within the countries it is sourced from has created helped in generating this increase. Worth a total of 26 million £ last year, research company Datamonitor has predicted that the UK’s Fairtrade alcohol market will enjoy an 18 % year-on-year growth during the next five years.
 

For the first time there was a Fairtrade wine category included within the prestigious International Wine Challenge awards.  This is a recognition by the industry of the high quality of the wine and also that there is ever increasing interest in Fairtrade wines by both trade and consumers. The award winner will be available at the tasting, along with a number of other award-winning wines. The UK Fairtrade Wine Committee was formed in 2006 with the aim of raising awareness in the UK wine trade and with the consumer.  Made up of licensees representing the wines in the UK, this committee is the only one of its kind in the Fairtrade sector, as its members actively collaborate to raise the profile of its products; and the benefits to the workers and local communities that produce them. 

Fairtrade Foundation