Retail sales of Fairtrade products in Ireland rose 40 per cent last year to €9 million, according to the body that promotes the brand for goods sourced directly from developing world producers.

Fairtrade Mark Ireland executive director Peter Gaynor called on major Irish retailers to increase their distribution of Fairtrade products.

At the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, a two-week campaign to promote the brand, he said that wine, rice and ice products have joined a product range that already includes coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snacks and biscuits, sugar, honey, fruit juice and fresh fruit.

"Fairtrade is crossing the Rubicon from the marginal to the mainstream. In Britain the second-largest retailer, Sainsbury's, has committed to having all of its bananas certified as Fairtrade in 2007," he said.

"We obviously think Irish retailers can and should do the same. Businesses don't have to wait for consumers and people in Third World countries shouldn't have to wait forever."

At an event in Dublin yesterday to mark the start of the campaign, a coffee farmer with the Gumutindo Coffee Co-operative in Uganda said its involvement in Fairtrade made a big difference to its members.

"It is marketing our coffee and giving us a fair price. And we know we are not being cheated," said Oliva Kishero.

"Before the co-op started, we women carried the coffee to market on our backs, sometimes to villages 10 kilometres away. The traders would say our coffee is no good and offer us a low price. We had to take what they offered or carry it all the way back to our farms."

The UK-based Fairtrade coffee brand Percol will enter the €55 million coffee market in Ireland in the coming weeks.

Percol, which claims 10 per cent of UK branded coffee market, aims to take advantage of the growing demand for ethical products. It already has distribution agreements with big retailers such as Tesco and Dunnes Stores.

The brand, established in 1987 by chief executive Brian Chapman, is also seeking to tap into an increasing awareness of speciality coffees and the public's desire to drink them at home. Its beans come from small plantations in Central and South America and are roasted at a plant in Sweden. "We feel the time is right to enter the Irish market," said Mr Chapman.