ITALY

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The structure of fair trade

Fair trade in Italy is characterized by the presence of four importers: CTM (Cooperazione Terzo Mondo), which is the largest one; Commercio Alternativo, the second largest one, founded in 1992; and two smaller importers, Sir John and RAM - Robe dell'Altro Mondo, which operate independently but collaborate with CTM. Next to these organizations there is a financing cooperative, CTM-MAG, which collects savings and grants loans mainly to fair trade organizations in Italy and abroad.

The TransFair labelling initiative was introduced at the end of 1994 by a number of major NGOs (ACRA, Mani Tese) and their federations (FOCSIV and CIPSI), a consumer association, fair trade organizations (Association of World Shops, CTM, CTM-MAG, Commercio Alternativo) and other national solidarity organizations, such as Pax Christi, ARCI, ACLI.

There are over 150 world shops in Italy, 61 of which are members of CTM. A number of world shops (31) are organized into a national association (Associazione Botteghe del Commercio Equo e Solidale Italia).

There are about 400 points of sale for fair trade products, mostly world shops plus a few commercial shops and some chains of supermarkets. CTM has its own mail-order catalogue.

The fair trade organizations and the world shops employ a total of approximately 70 persons. Press coverage of fair trade is good. CTM's marketing budget is 375,000 ECU, the education budget amounts to 160,000 ECU.

The market for fair trade

Total wholesale turnover is estimated at about 5.7 million ECU in 1994, and retail turnover at around 9 million ECU. The Italian consumer is still poorly informed about fair trade and the differences with traditional commerce, but estimations are that 15% would be willing to get in touch with and support fair trade and would be prepared to pay a slightly higher price for products which are "ethically sound".

The prices of fair trade products do not differ much from those in regular trade, but differences vary according to the kind of product. Customers appear to buy fair trade products primarily because of their high quality (26%) and uniqueness (17%). An obstacle to the further development of fair trade is the poor availability of the products to the consumer. The main products categories are foodstuffs (coffee, tea, honey, cocoa, chocolate, dried nuts, spices, cane sugar, dried fruits and exotic fruit jam) and handicrafts. Food accounts for approximately 60% of the turnover, non-food for 40%.

The locations of the world shops are somewhat unfavourable and they are mainly concentrated in the northern part of the country. One of the major cooperative chains of supermarkets is testing the introduction of a number of fairly traded food products into their product range on a local scale. Commercial shops show an increasingly positive attitude towards fair trade.

67% of the customers of the world shops are women between 18 and 44 years old. 35% of the customers are students, 34% are clerical workers and 13% are entrepreneurs and professionals. 36% have received at least secondary education. 73% of world shop customers actually prefer supermarkets for purchasing food products. Most visitors of world shops visit the shops regularly.

The market share of fair trade coffee is only 0.1% but is increasing. CTM experienced a spectacular growth in turnover in the past five years. The most important new development now is the introduction of the TransFair trademark.

Table 1: The structure of fair trade in Italy

Table 2: The market for fair trade in Italy

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