Best practice & Ethics
Sainsbury's to source 100% fairtrade bananas
J Sainsbury has
become the first UK supermarket chain to source all its bananas from Fairtrade
suppliers. Fairtrade is a certification system that allows consumers to identify
products meeting agreed environmental, labour and developmental standards, and
Sainsbury said this move will make its share of the fair-trade market larger
than all other major UK supermarkets combined.
The Fairtrade
Foundation said that Sainsbury's initiative was the biggest commitment to
fairtrade by a single company anywhere in the world. The supermarket chains
sells about 2000 tonnes of bananas or 10m individual bananas each week, the
foundation said, and this will more than double the volume of fairtrade bananas
bought by UK shoppers.
Justin King, the company’s chief executive, said that from
now on every customer buying bananas from Sainsbury will know that they are
making a difference to a developing country.
Harriet Lamb, Fairtrade Foundation executive director,
said, “The impact on the banana farmers and their communities will be hugely
significant”.
Links
J Sainsbury
Fairtrade Foundation
January, 2007 |
