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.

Answer:The two tables give information on sales of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in the UK, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, and Sweden.

Overall, across these years, coffee sales increased in the five countries. By contrast, banana sales grew only in Switzerland, the UK and Belgium.

Regarding coffee sales, between 1999 and 2004, the figures in the UK grew from 1.5 million euros to 20 million euros, which was a massive increase. Sales figure in Switzerland doubled from 3 million to 6 million euros. Denmark also reported a growth, from 1.8 million to 2 million. The increases in Belgium and Sweden were 1-1.7 and 0.8-1 million euros respectively.

About sales of bananas, Switzerland had more than a threefold increase (15-47 million euros).between these years. The growth in the UK and Belgium was also high, from 1-5.5 and from 0.6-4 million euros respectively. By contrast, figures in Sweden dropped by 0.8 million (from 1.8) and in Denmark by 1.1 million (from 2 million).