With more than 1,800 certified producer organisations and 1.5 million metric tonnes of Fairtrade products sold by producers, there are a lot of facts and figures when it comes to Fairtrade. Our latest monitoring report shares the most recent data from 2024, from bananas to tea and everything in between.

One of the most important figures we look at each year is the Fairtrade Premium – this is the sum paid to producer organisations on top of the selling price for every Fairtrade sale, which farmers and workers democratically decide how to spend.

In 2024, producers earned €201.6 million in Fairtrade Premium. Adding up the past five years of Premium value, it comes to more than €1 billion for farmers and workers to invest.

Understanding the ways Fairtrade Premium funds are spent provides insights into producers’ priorities (though it does not indicate outcomes or impacts of that spending).  This year, we updated the Fairtrade Premium use categories to incorporate emerging market needs and clarify the areas where Fairtrade farmers, workers and their communities are investing.

The main categories have stayed mostly the same, such as production-related spending (for farmer cooperatives), or financial benefits. Changes to sub-categories include language that is simpler and clearer about where producers’ Fairtrade Premium spending supports current sustainability priorities. For instance, we have new sub-categories for biodiversity or recycling initiatives, organic inputs, and preparing for legislation (such as the EU Deforestation Regulation).

We are also sharing two new analyses that highlights the broader ways that Fairtrade Premium spending is directed toward economic benefits, and environmental benefits. In the economic analysis, this includes direct spending – such as cash distribution of Premium funds – as well as indirect spending such as funding trainings on improving crop quality or productivity, which are expected to improve farmer incomes. The same was done for environmental benefits including climate change. Categories could be assigned to both economic and environmental expected benefits – such as reforestation initiatives which can help producers maintain market access as well as contribute to a healthy environment.

With these analyses, we can see that farmer cooperatives spent 76 percent of their Premium funds on areas related to economic benefits (directly and indirectly), while workers on large-scale farms (hired labour organisations) directed 80 percent of their Premium there. This shows the massive priority that farmers and workers place on economic support, which is fundamental to overall livelihood sustainability. 

Almost a quarter (24 percent) of cooperatives’ Premium funds were directed toward environmental and climate-related areas. The figure is much lower for workers in hired labour settings – two percent – which makes sense because Premium is for workers’ benefit, while the companies are responsible for environmental investments. 

When it comes to producers, each region is a bit different. We also publish three regional reports that highlight the scope of Fairtrade producers and products, as well as results of their annual Producer Satisfaction Surveys. There we see a lot of similarities: overall satisfaction is around 90 percent in each region and trending upward, and the top reported challenges are limited market access and climate change. The top benefits of Fairtrade are to do with better prices and the Fairtrade Premium, as well as support for improving farming practices (such as biodiversity), better working conditions and protections, and opportunities for women. The reports also include the outcomes that producers report after training or support from their Fairtrade producer network.

Want to know some more interesting facts about Fairtrade producers and products? Did you know:

• There are almost 2 million farmers and workers that are part of Fairtrade – 1.87 million in 2024 to be exact. Ninety percent of these are farmers.
• 23% of Fairtrade farmers are women, and 40% of workers are women. Which product has the highest percentage? Cereals for farmers (64%), and tea for workers (55%).
• 1.5 million metric tonnes of Fairtrade products were sold by producers in 2024. But we also have products not sold by weight, such as flowers and plans (986 million items), sportsballs (162K items), and wine grapes (26 million litres of wine).
• Out of 2.8 million hectares of land under Fairtrade certification for our top six products (bananas, cocoa, coffee, cane sugar, cotton, and tea), about a quarter is farmed organically. By volume, more than a third of the products grown on that land (36%) are organic.

Check out the overview report as well as the three regional reports to learn more.