Recession-Proof-Principles

You would be forgiven for thinking that this recession malarkey was likely to curb the success of fairly traded, ethically sourced and organically grown products.

After all, if you’re battling to stay off the dole, and struggling to stay in demand, how righteous your rice, how principled your pumps, or how moral your mung beans are has got to be the last thing on your mind. Surely you’ll just hold out for the latest deals on industrial sized packs of fish fingers and head for shops where you can buy forty jumpers for £5.99. It’s those deals that will see you through the bleaker times is it not?

In our national attempt to pinch some pennies, it would seem obvious that we would shun our values in favour of value for money, forego our principles for the sake of a cheaper shopping bill. But on the contrary, in terms of consumerism, it seems that ethical is on the up.

As Fairtrade celebrates its 15th anniversary in the UK this year, it also seems to be celebrating it’s recession-proof stature. And it’s not just that it has weathered recession’s storms – it has positively benefited from them. A recent survey from market research firm TNS shows that across 25,000 househilds in the UK, the average purchase grew over the last year by 5.5% - from £18.19 to £19.17. Moreover, 72% of consumers now recognise the Fairtrade mark on products – a 4% rise since April 2009.

And it’s not just from a consumer perspective that Fairtrade has seen this upsurge of popularity, but from a corporate point of view too. Cadbury recently announced that all of its flagship Dairy Milk bars in Britain and Ireland would be made exclusively from fair-trade cocoa grown by Ghanaian farmers. Meanwhile, every cup of coffee that Starbucks sells in the U.K. will be brewed with fair-trade beans, and in 2009, the company plans to double the amount of fair-trade coffee it imports into the U.S.

Beyond the chocolate and coffee market, there are more seeds of growth. Ethical fashion has witnessed an incredible expansion in popularity, as items that are high-end, luxury AND ethical begin to emerge – demonstrated by companies such as People Tree, Matt & Natt, and Terra Plana. Meanwhile stores such as Topshop and other fashion stalwarts such as Levis and American Apparel are beginning to find new ways of introducing Fairtrade into their collections. At London Fashion Week which I attended recently for the launch of the LOVE campaign I designed to convey Monsoon’s ethical credentials, I was astonished by both the range and the quality of the products on offer. Ethical has escalated. Big time.

The recession has certainly made us all a bit more careful with our money. But not in the sense that we would shun quality for quantity, or forego our principles entirely. In fact, a new wave of consumerism – the kind that demands transparency and responsibility from the brands, and that asks for high-end sustainability from the products – has really taken root. Across the board it seems that – consumer and company alike - we are all waking up to the fact that it’s this kind of shopping that really does make sense.