Fairtrade Fortnight highlights ‘banana wars’

Fairtrade Fortnight to highlight the struggle of banana farmers around the world

Fairtrade Fortnight, which this year runs between 24 February and 9 March, will highlight the struggle of banana farmers around the world.  Bananas, along with shopping basket staples such as bread and milk, have become a battleground on which the big four supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons – compete for market share.

The typical retail price of loose bananas in Britain is sixty-eight pence per kilo. In 2002 it was £1.10 per kilo. The Fairtrade Foundation is running a Make Bananas Fair campaign during Fairtrade Fortnight to highlight the plight of banana farmers throughout the world.

A recent report from the Foundation on the banana supply chain in Britain, Britain’s Bruising Banana Wars, revealed that if bananas had kept inflationary pace with other food prices over the past ten years they would now be £1.40 per kilo – more than double their current price.

Fairtrade products had record sales of £1.78 billion in 2013. This figure represented a thirteen per cent increase on the previous year.

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