Ethical spending doubles in five years

By Jennifer Hill

LONDON (Reuters) - Household expenditure on ethical goods and services has almost doubled in the past five years, a report shows.

The average British household spent 664 pounds in line with their ethical values last year, against just 366 pounds in 2002 -- a rise of 81 percent, according to the Co-operative Bank.

Its eighth annual ethical consumerism report shows that ethical spending is now worth 32.3 billion pounds per year, up 9 percent from 29.7 billion pounds a year ago.

But it remains a small proportion of total annual consumer spending of more than 600 billion pounds.

Households spent an average of 213 pounds on "green" home products, such as energy-efficient light bulbs and A-rated kitchen appliances, during 2006, and 190 pounds on ethical food and drink, such as "Fairtrade" tea, coffee and bananas, and organic brands.

Simon Williams, a director of the Co-operative Bank, said the market share for ethical food and drink appeared to have broken through the "green glass ceiling" of 5 percent of the entire market.

"Factoring in the effect of consumer boycotts, this market share could be as high as 7 percent," he said.

"Potentially, we could see market share hit 10 percent in the next year or two."