GERMANY

The structure of fair trade

The biggest import and wholesale organization is gepa, others being Ravensburg, El Puente, Teamversand and Sancho Pancho. In addition, some world shops take care of their own imports. There is also a German branch of the fair trade mark organization TransFair.

The retail channels are very diverse: (a chain of) world shops, individual shops (groceries and natural food stores), commercial stores, chains of supermarkets and mail-order catalogues.

Some 30,000 points of sale are involved in retailing, most of which only sell TransFair coffee. TransFair coffee is sold in 25,000 shops, including big supermarkets and the Rewe chain (with 2,400 supermarkets). There are about 700 world shops in Germany, as well as 3,000 to 4,000 - mainly church-based - groups selling fair trade products.

The world shops are organized into a national federation: AG Dritte Welt L„den, of which about 110 out of the 700 world shops are members.

The labelling initiative, TransFair Germany, is member of the international organization: TransFair International. TransFair was founded and is directed by an association involving 32 social, religious and development organizations.

The world shops' budgets for education and marketing are very low. However, a range of channels for the dissemination of information are used, e.g. television, radio, newspaper articles, video tapes, posters, leaflets, brochures, slide shows and pamphlets.

The latest developments in Germany are the extension of the trademark to include other products such as honey, tea, sugar, cocoa and chocolate.

The market for fair trade

GEPA's wholesale turnover was 25 million ECU in 1993/94. Exact figures on retail turnover are not known.

Fair trade and fair trade products are rather well known in Germany. 10% of the population are willing to buy fair trade products and 17% is familiar with TransFair coffee. Around 2% of the population buy fair trade products at present. The market share of TransFair coffee is 2%.

Both commercial importers, traders and retailers are interested in TransFair coffee. As many as 25 small and medium-sized coffee roasters have included TransFair coffee in their product range. There is a tendency among commercial businesses to introduce special "ecological" or "fair" product lines bearing their own trademark, but not necessarily according to the criteria applied by the fair trade sector in Germany.

Although fair trade products can be up to 40% more expensive, people are prepared to pay a higher price for it. 37% of those who are familiar with TransFair coffee are willing to pay up to 1 ECU extra per kilo. The quality and attractiveness of the products is improving, but due to insufficient working capital, products are regularly out of stock. The fair trade sector sells about 3,000 different products. The world shops are not situated in the main shopping centres.

Consumers of fair trade products are generally well-educated, earn above average incomes, and are 25-40 years old (customers of the church-based groups are older).

Turnover and the number of points of sale are increasing; fair trade is a growth market.

Table 1: The structure of fair trade in Germany

Table 2: The market for fair trade in Germany

	[Other Fair TradeMarks] [Resources] [Survey Contents]
Back		Next

Return to Main