Band 6+: The tables below give information about sales of Fairtrade*-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in five European countries. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. *Fairtrade: a category of products for which farmers from developing countries have been paid an officially agreed fair price. You should write at least 150 words.

The tables illustrate the sales of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas in five Europian nations – Switzerland, Uk, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark – in the years 1999 and 2004. Overall, the sales of UK and Switzerland increased significantly in both categories (bananas and coffee). On the other hand, those of Denmark and Sweden witnessed decreases in the sales of bananas. The data is measured on millions of euros.

From 1999 to 2004, the coffee sales in UK experienced the greatest growth, increasing from 1.5 to 20. Similarly, the sales of coffee in both countries – Switzerland and Belgium – sales doubled, with the former from 3 to 6 and the latter from 1 to about 2. This upward trend was observed in other two countries as well, specifically, Sweden and Denmark showed the smallest progress with only 0.2 growth.

Similarly, in bananas sales, Switzerland experienced the most significant rise, tripling from 15 to 47. The sales of bananas in UK and Belgium rose, whereas those of Sweden and Denmark fell and became the lowest amounts (1 and 0.9 respectively) by the end of the period.