Task
The tables below give information about sales of Fairtrade*-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in five European countries.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Examiner’s Answer
The two tables contain sales data for Fairtrade coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004, in five nations of Europe.
The first table shows low-level coffee sales increasing in all five countries, albeit to widely varying degrees. In two places sales increased by the same small amount: 1.8-2 million euros in Denmark, and 0.8-1 million in Sweden. The increment was slightly larger in Belgium, from 1-1.7 million euros. Meanwhile, in Switzerland sales doubled from 3-6 million euros. Finally, in the UK there was an enormous increase, from 1.5-20 million euros.
In the second table, it is Switzerland which stands out as buying far more Fairtrade bananas than the other four countries. Swiss sales figures jumped from 15-47 million euros across these five years, while in the UK and Belgium sales only grew from 1-5.5 and from 0.6-4 million euros respectively. Sweden and Denmark showed a different pattern, with falls in banana sales from 1.8-1 and 2-0.9 million euros respectively.
Comparing the two tables, it is clear that in 1999 Fairtrade coffee sales ranged from 0.8-3 million euros in these five countries, while banana sales also mostly clustered between 0.6 and 2 million euros, with Switzerland the outlier at a huge 15 million euros. By 2004, sales figures for both products had risen across the board, except for Sweden and Denmark which recorded drops in banana sales.
