AgroFair, the Switzerland-based company which imports and distributes Fairtrade and organic tropical fresh fruit from Africa and Latin America across Europe, has triumphed in the food category at the 2012 Coop Natura Awards.
The prize, which comes with a Swfr100,000 (€82,000), is presented every two years to business partners of retailer Coop Switzerland in recognition of their work in terms of making their food products and services more sustainable.
'As a sustainable retailer in Switzerland they set high standards with regard to their partners,' said a spokesperson for AgroFair. 'They strive to increase innovation and sustainability within the chain and to enhance partnership in the long term.'
Coop Switzerland has included AgroFair's Oké-branded bananas in its product range since 1997, a year after the importer became the first company in the world to bring Fairtrade bananas from Ecuador into the European market.
Bananas were later followed by Fairtrade-branded mangoes, pineapples and citrus.
AgroFair, which aims to source 100 per cent Fairtrade and/or organically certified produce, works with producers in central America, South America and Africa, with 35 per cent of the company owned by the growers themselves.
