One in four bananas in the UK are now Fairtrade. Retailers Tesco, Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury's stuck specially designed Go Fairtrade bananas! stickers on all their bagged Fairtrade bananas during Fairtrade Fortnight.
Fairtrade banana sales grew by 27% in 2008 as estimated retail sales reached £185 million (€199.4m), according to the Fairtrade Foundation.
One aim of the Fairtrade Foundation's five-year strategy, Tipping the Balance, is to double the number of Fairtrade bananas in the UK by 2012, thus helping more banana farmers and workers to benefit from the Fairtrade system.
In the UK, between 2002 and 2008, the price of loose conventional bananas has been cut dramatically in a series of price wars by big supermarkets," the Fairtrade Foundation noted. "The research shows the impact is felt somewhere along the supply chain. It is usually the growers who are often forced to sell their fruit for very little, often less than it cost them to grow.
Fairtrade bananas currently come from 57 certified groups in ten countries in the Caribbean, West Africa and Latin America. Exporters from East Africa can also get Fair Trade certification to benefit from the above trend.
