Ethical goods are inching their way into our Christmas
Dec 22 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal
WITH Christmas upon us, more ethically minded shoppers will be looking at ways to support third world producers by wrapping up everything from beanbag nativity sets to handcrafted jewellery. Christopher Knox discovers the North East market is in rude health.
WITH increasing media attention placed on the problems of third world poverty, a larger number of sympathetic shoppers have moved towards ethically sourced gifts as part of their festive expenditure.
The most visible area of goodwill among shoppers in the run up to the festivities is within the charity Christmas card market, with charities now reliant on this for a large part of their annual donations.
In fact, according to research by Royal Mail, half of the 1.8 billion Christmas cards that are sent from Britain every year are charity cards.
It is a heartwarming statistic, but there are also many shoppers that see the ethical gift market as equally important, especially to those producers looking to trade their way out of poverty rather than rely on handouts.
The most recent Co-operative Bank Ethical Consumerism Report shows that spending on sustainable products and services over 2009 increased by 5%, with each household now spending an average of £251 on green items each year.
The data also highlights that expenditure on environmentally friendly products and services such as energy efficient appliances, green energy and carbon offsetting now amounts to more than £6,400m.
Despite the frosty economic climate, the Co-operative Bank said that it expects ethical spending to be even higher when it publishes its 2010 before the new year.
The North East is home to two of the UK’s biggest ethical businesses, Traidcraft and online retailer Ethical Superstore.
Traidcraft, which is based in Gateshead, believes that shoppers are less willing to cut back on ethical products as part of their Christmas spend and are still keen to show their support for modest craft-based gifts as opposed to the tide of electronic equipment advertised in the run up to the holidays. The retailer said that its turnover to date is currently at around £11m, which is up from the £9m it recorded at the same point last year.
The firm said it was now confident that it could beat the £15m end of year turnover it reached in March after investing £50,000 in its e-commerce website and £100,000 on its mail order and marketing activities.
The company’s online and mail order sales grew by 15% in the 11 months to November, with the firm expecting this to continue until the end of the Christmas period.
It introduced a new Christmas range for this year which it said was proving popular with customers, with its ‘angels in a bottle’ and ‘sitting angel’ stocking fillers flying off the shelves.
It is also receiving a lot of orders for its recycled rubber wallets and lap-top bags, which are made in Bhopal, India.
