Fairtrade company Agrofair UK will donate 800 bananas to the annual Action 100 cycle ride over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
The organisers of the 100-mile ride, which takes off from start points in Bristol and Bath on August 27, had difficulty sourcing banana donations for the event.
Bristol supermarkets were unable to supply bananas for the event after an international banana blight pushed local prices to a premium and left retailers struggling to meet customer demand, according to Action Medical Research.
Clive Marriott, commercial manager of AgroFair UK, said: “We are delighted to provide bananas to support such a worthwhile event.
“Fairtrade bananas taste great and buying them helps ‘make poverty history’ for farmers and their families in developing countries. Fairtrade fruit is kinder to the consumer, to the farmers and to the planet, as it is grown to strict environmental standards.”
Agrofair UK is owned by its growers in Africa and Latin America, and by development organisations including Twin Trading in the UK - the company that helped launch Fairtrade brands Cafédirect and Divine Chocolate - together with other ethical investors, on an equal basis.
The ‘Fairtrade premium’ included in every product goes straight back to the farming organizations who decide democratically how it should be spent to benefit the community.
A proportion of last year’s premium was spent on providing a bicycle to each of the 500 workers on banana farms in Ghana last year to help with long and difficult journeys to work.
Jennifer Reid, community fundraising manager, said: “It is definitely a weight off our minds that Agrofair has come forward and promised us the bananas we need for this year’s Action 100. It’s a very generous gesture.
“Now we can turn our attention back to raising money for an important medical
charity.”
The national charity, which funds research into many serious diseases and conditions, including premature birth, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, osteoporosis, sickle cell disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke, has been operating for 50 years.
