Ethical business is a recession-buster!

Markets for ethical goods and services have remained resilient throughout the economic downturn as a progressive core of retailers and producers continue to factor sustainability such as Fairtrade ingredients into their products and services.That is the conclusion of The Co-operative’s annual Ethical Consumer Markets Report (pdf) which shows that since the onset of the recession five years ago the total value of ethical markets has gone from £35.5bn to £47.2bn.Acting as a barometer of green markets since 1999 when annual ethical sales were just £13.5bn, the report analyses sales data for various sectors including food, household goods, eco-travel and ethical finance.Amongst the biggest growing categories during the recession are sustainable fish up 323 per cent from £69m to £292m, Fairtrade which has increased 176 per cent from £458m to £1,262m and free range eggs sales up 78 per cent from £444m to £792m.However, sales of organic produce, although now stabilised at £1.5bn, have declined from a high of £1.9bn in 2008.In 2011, ethical food and drink markets increased 7.8 per cent per cent to reach £6.9bn. Markets for green home products were up 10.6 per cent to £8.4bn and ethical personal products were up 4.3 per cent to £1.8bn