The tables below give information about sales of Fairtrade*-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in five European countries. Sales of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas (1999 & 2004) *Fairtrade: a category of products for which farmers from developing countries have been paid an officially agreed fair price.

Same questionCompare 2 different answers (Band 6.5–7)

Sample Response

1

The tables provideThe table data provides sales information on coffee and bananas that were Fairtrade-labelled and soldwhich had Fairtrade labels attached to them and had been sold in five different countries in Europe in 1999 and 2004. The sales figuresprice are given in millions of eurosEuros Deleteand the fairtrade coffee and bananas indicate that the farmers who produced these products are from developing countries and have been paid a decent price for their production. As a general trend, the UK was the largest market for Fairtrade labelled coffee while Switzerland recorded the highest Fairtrade banana salesSwiss people preferred bananas of this category in 2004. As the table data demonstrates, sales generally rose between 1999 and 2004, although banana sales fell in Sweden and Denmarkthe market for Fairtrade labelled coffee and bananas witnessed a dramatic increase in 2004 than that of 5 years ago. With regardregards to coffee sales, the highest sales figurethe highest amount of sales was recordedcould be observed in Switzerland in 1999 with exactly €3 million3 million Euro sale volume. UK salesThe sale in the UK that yearin this year was half of that and the lowest sale was recorded in Sweden with €0.8 millionless than 1 million Euro. Five years laterAfter 5 years, the sales of coffee in these countries increased, with a particularly sharp riseincreases with a remarkable improvement in the UK. The sales went up to 20 million Euros in the UK in 2004 which was almost doublewith was almost double than the combined sales amount in the remaining four countries. For the banana sales, Switzerland was the largest market in both years. Sales in the other four countries totalled €5.4 million, compared with €15 million in Switzerland.Sales amount in the rest of the countries summed to just over 4 million while it was 15 million alone in Switzerland. Sales rose significantly to €47 million in Switzerland, while they fell in both Sweden and Denmark.The sales upsurged significantly and went up to 47 million while it decreased in Denmark.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 6.5

The response is strongest in identifying the leading markets and supporting the coffee trends with well-chosen figures. The main limitation is uneven coverage of the banana table, including an inaccurate 1999 subtotal and omission of Sweden's decline, while recurring grammatical and collocational errors reduce precision. The highest priority is to compare all notable rises and falls accurately, then edit sentence structures and data language for control.

Band score breakdown

IELTS Writing Criteria Scores

TA

Task Achievement

7.0
Scoring rule

A clear overview and accurate coffee comparisons cover the central trends, but banana coverage omits Sweden's decline and inaccurately totals the other countries in 1999.

Next step

Contrast the three banana increases with the declines in both Sweden and Denmark, checking every quoted total against the tables.

CC

Coherence and Cohesion

6.5
Scoring rule

The response follows a logical introduction-overview-detail sequence and groups the two products clearly, though the long single-block presentation and some loose references reduce cohesion.

Next step

Use separate paragraphs for the overview, coffee, and bananas, and ensure pronouns such as 'it' have an unmistakable numerical referent.

LR

Lexical Resource

6.5
Scoring rule

There is a good range of data-reporting vocabulary, but awkward collocations such as 'sales price', 'witnessed an increase than', and 'sales upsurged' recur.

Next step

Prefer standard combinations such as 'sales figures', 'rose compared with', and 'sales increased sharply'.

GRA

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

6.0
Scoring rule

The response attempts varied complex structures, but agreement, tense, relative-clause, and comparative errors occur frequently despite generally clear meaning.

Next step

Proofread subject-verb agreement and comparison structures, replacing forms such as 'increases', 'with was', and 'double than' with accurate alternatives.

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1

The tables below give information about sales of Fairtrade*-labelled coffee and bananas in 1999 and 2004 in five European countries. Sales of Fairtrade-labelled coffee and bananas (1999 & 2004) *Fairtrade: a category of products for which farmers from developing countries have been paid an officially agreed fair price.

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