Simon Wright and Diane McCrea (Eds.). The handbook of organic and fair trade food marketing, Blackwell Publishing, 2007, 291 pp., ISBN 1405150580, $184.00.
✍ Scribed by Carolyn Dimitri
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 61 KB
- Volume
- 24
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0742-4477
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The Handbook of Organic and Fair Trade Food Marketing is one of the few books devoted to the organic market; like most of the other books on this topic, this book focuses mainly on the European market. The first three chapters of this book cover the international market for organic and fair trade products, consumers of organic products, and consumers of fair trade products. The second section of the book covers successful organic and fair trade brands, giving case studies for six organic products, providing fascinating insight into brand development and company histories. The next three chapters discuss organic and fair trade marketing in Germany, Italy, and the United States. The final chapter addresses the environmental and social goals of organic and fair trade products, pointing out where they converge.
The book begins by providing a thorough overview of the organic and fair trade markets in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australasia, including a discussion of retail sales, organic farmland, retail venues that carry organic food, organic supply chain, and organic sales channels. Some of the findings are: The two countries with the greatest amount of organic farmland (as of 2004) are Australia and China. Liechtenstein and Austria have the highest share of organic farmland (2005). Mexico has the most organic farms (2005) of all countries, worldwide. The chapter on the organic consumer is based on results of an annual consumer survey conducted by the Soil Association. The 2006 survey found that 39% of consumers bought organic food at least once a month and that 22% were buying organic food at least once a week. The primary reasons consumers gave for buying organic food varied by product, and included taste (fruits and vegetables), animal welfare (eggs, meat), and food safety (beef and lamb). The chapter on fair trade consumers reveals that half the U.K. population recognizes the fair trade label and that sales have increased 40 to 50% annually between 2001 and 2005. Young people in the United Kingdom are becoming more aware of fair trade products while focus groups found that people felt they were ''doing their part'' by purchasing fair trade products. The chapter provides extensive information about the principles behind fair trade and the effectiveness of the label.
The next section of the book, which was the most interesting to this reviewer, provides company histories of successful organic companies, all based in the United Kingdom. The companies featured market dairy products (Yeo Valley Organic), chocolate (Green and Black's), fresh produce (Abel & Cole), tea (Clipper Teas), biscuits and other grocery products (Duchy Originals), and private-label organic foods (Sainsbury's SO Organic). These case studies describe the challenges the firms faced in launching their products, including sourcing ingredients, processing the products, developing tasty products, distributing the products, and the types of labels used.