The Fairtrade Foundation has told FPJ it is “concerned” following discussions with retailer Asda about its plans to introduce its own fair-trade kite-mark on UK-grown produce.

“One of the reasons that the Fairtrade marque has been successful is that it is based on internationally agreed standards that are set and verified by an independent, not-for-profit body,” said Ian Bretman, deputy director of the Fairtrade Foundation. “The backing of the leading international development NGOs such as Oxfam and Christian Aid has also been an important factor in building the credibility of our certification marque. These factors provide assurance to consumers in a simple, accessible way. We cannot be sure that other schemes would operate to equivalent standards with the same independent processes and there is a risk of labels proliferating in a way that just confuses consumers.”

But Asda insisted that confusion was unlikely. “We don’t think it would be confusing as there would be a lot of marketing to show the difference between the two,” the retailer’s press office told FPJ. “The difference would be the main selling point. There are a lot of people who think it is not fair to English [sic] farmers and who think that they should get support.”

The chain said that its research showed there was more interest in a fair-trade range of UK produce than it had thought there would be, but the retailer said it had “no firm plans” for the next stages in its development yet.

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