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*Industry leaders and businesses were urged to scale up their engagement with Fairtrade to help tackle poverty in developing countries at the annual Commercial Conference (16 September) entitled 'Tipping the Balance', held by the Fairtrade Foundation in London. *

'Tipping the Balance' is also the name of the new five-year strategy launched in February aimed at achieving a fourfold expansion by 2012 to £2bn, and making Fairtrade the trade norm rather than the exception.

“The scale and level of poverty worldwide demands that businesses and consumers urgently need to play their part to scale up Fairtrade," said Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation. "And in these tough economic times, people in developing countries who typically spend over 50% of their income on food are the most severely affected. In Kenya recently, a farmer told me that a bag of maize had increased by 100%."

The call to action comes in the run up to a high-level UN event on 25 September to renew government and business commitments to meet 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the halfway point.

The Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander, said: "We congratulate all businesses who have helped put Fairtrade on the shelf, and call upon the business community to take Fairtrade to the next level, making it more mainstream still. The retail industry can open doors to more farmers in developing countries and play their part towards the MDGs by enabling shoppers to support Fairtrade every day." * Continued growth* Sales of Fairtrade products for April to June 2008 grew by 55% from an estimated retail value of £113m to £176m in the same period last year. Volume, the best indicator of the amount of Fairtrade premiums that go back to producer groups to spend on community development projects, such as classrooms and clinics, increased by 42% in food alone.

Sugar (including retail, catering and composites) increased in volume by 467%, an increase in sales value from £10m to almost £24m.

Tea grew in volume by 186%, an increase in sales value from just under £7m to almost £16m.

According to recent TNS figures, Fairtrade certified foods have increased their market penetration 61% to 70% over the last year (from 15.2 million households to 17.5 million), meaning that an extra 2.3 million households now purchase Fairtrade certified food products.

Major category switches by Tate & Lyle, the Co-operative and Sainsbury’s have largely contributed to this increase in Fairtrade sales, but sales generated by dedicated Fairtrade companies such as Cafédirect, Divine Chocolate, AgroFair fruit company and the new Fairtrade nut company Liberation have also made their mark. Core categories such as bananas and coffee continued to show a steady growth of 27% and 23% in the second quarter of 2008 respectively.

Iain Ferguson, CBE, Chief Executive of Tate & Lyle plc, one of the keynote speakers, said: “We have had an excellent response from consumers to our switch to Fairtrade, and we've seen good volume growth in key customer accounts, somewhat ahead of our expectations.”

Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 The theme for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009 (23 February – 8 March) 'Make it happen. Choose Fairtrade', was also unveiled to conference delegates. Companies were encouraged to build on last year’s success, which saw several all-important conversions to Fairtrade from major high street companies.

Fairtrade Fortnight presents companies with a unique opportunity to market Fairtrade and is the perfect time for companies to improve visibility at point-of-sale, or even consider extending their range of Fairtrade certified products.