The Fairtrade Foundation has expressed its great regret at the decision by UK retailer Asda to slash the price of loose bananas by around 15p a kilo to 70p/kg, a move that has triggered yet another round in the ongoing price war on bananas between supermarkets and has already been followed by Tesco.
This latest cut represents a 36 per cent fall from 2002, when bananas were sold at around £1.10/kg.
“Regardless of whether supermarkets take the ‘margin hit’ themselves in the short term, there is no doubt that moves to reduce basic banana prices will inevitably create pressure on suppliers down the chain,” said a statement from the Fairtrade Foundation. “Over recent years, falling banana prices have resulted in severe hardship for the producers involved, forcing smaller farmers out of the market and undermining efforts to improve environmental sustainability and working conditions on larger plantations.”
This latest move by retailers echoes one from 2006, when Asda cut prices to as low as 64p/kg, and other supermarkets again followed suit. However, in the four weeks following last year’s move. TNS data reveals that overall banana sales actually fell by 7.9 per cent, whilst expenditure was reduced by 23.9 per cent and customer penetration fell by 10 per cent, wiping an estimated £7 million off the category as a whole.
“This would suggest that price cuts are not only damaging to farmers and workers, but also unnecessary from a consumer point of view. The Fairtrade Foundation is disappointed that consumers are being misled into understanding that 70p/kg is a sustainable price, when that is clearly not the case, and this move opens up a price differential between conventional and Fairtrade-certified bananas ( as well as organic, certified fruit) that regrettable creates more confusion among shoppers on the pricing issue.”
The foundation added: “The only way that consumers can be sure that price cuts do not result in pay cuts for banana growers is by choosing Fairtrade product. We applaud recent moves by Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to switch all their bananas to Fairtrade.”
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