Sales of Fairtrade coffee, free-range chickens and other “ethical” products have overtaken money spent on alcohol and cigarettes for the first time, according to a report.
Ethical spending on food, transport, energy, travel and financial products has risen steadily over the past seven years, reaching a record high of £29.3 billion in 2005. Never before has it overtaken the milestone of retail sales for alcohol and cigarettes, which reached £28 billion last year.
The Co-operative Bank’s annual Ethical Consumerism Report, which acts as a barometer of ethical spending in Britain, found that the total ethical spend in 2005 rose by 11 per cent on the previous year. That increase outstripped the 1.4 per cent increase in overall household expenditure.
Organic products, Fairtrade goods, free-range eggs and other “ethical” food products enjoyed an 18 per cent year-on-year boost from £4.6 billion to £5.4 billion, the report says.
Craig Shannon, the bank’s executive director of business management, said: “The fact that the value of ethical consumerism is now higher than the retail figures for cigarettes and beers is a milestone.”
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But he said that ethical spending had only become the norm in a minority of markets.