According to a recent survey, in 2003 the most successful fair-trade product in Italy was the banana. Seven million Italians bought at least one fair-trade product, compared with 3.7 million in 2002, while 12 million knew what fair trade was, compared with 4 million in 2002 – thanks, in part, to rainbow peace flags that were sold in fair trade shops all over Italy during 2003.

This article is from the September 2004 issue of New Internationalist.
You can access the entire archive of over 500 issues with a digital subscription. Subscribe today »