The tables below give information about sales of Fairtrade*-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in five European countries.
This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 10 Test 2 Writing Task 1.
Sales of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas (1999 & 2004)
Sample Essay
The tables display how much Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas were bought in 1999 and 2004 in 5 countries of Europe.
Overall, while sales of bananas increased in Switzerland, the UK and Belgium and decreased in Sweden and Denmark, coffee sales showed a climb in all 5 countries.
In both years, people in Switzerland bought far more bananas than people in the other four countries, with sales rising significantly from 15 to 47 million euros. Banana sales in the UK and Belgium also went up, to 5.5 and 4 million euros respectively, whereas sales in Sweden and Denmark showed a decline, to 1 and 0.9 million euros respectively.
Only 1.5 million euros’ worth of coffee was bought in the UK in 1999; however, sales in this country increased dramatically to 20 million euros in 2004, which was the highest across the 5 countries that year. Although people in Switzerland were the biggest coffee buyers in 1999 with 3 million euros of sales, this figure showed a relatively small growth to 6 million euros in 2004. People in Denmark, Belgium and Sweden also bought more coffee in 2004, but the increases were slight, to 2, 1.7 and 1 million euros respectively.
