A £2 million fund to help increase the UK market for sustainably produced food from Africa has been announced by the minister for trade and international development, Gareth Thomas.

The Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund was revealed at the UK Co-operative Forum conference this week.

Thomas said: “I am pleased to announce £2 million for a new Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund - the FRICH. This fund will help bring together retailers and African farmers to increase the market for sustainably produced food.”

“By purchasing Fairtrade-labelled, organic and other certified products from developing countries, people are already making a real difference to poor farmers’ lives, but we want to go further as I don’t think we can rely on labels alone. We need to trade more with the poorest countries in Africa, and we want more of this trade to be fair and ethical. This is why we are announcing the FRICH.

“The FRICH is designed to help African farmers come up with innovative business ideas to compete in our globalised world. We want to see new products in our shops so that many more African farmers have fairer and more profitable trading relationships with UK shoppers.”

Thomas challenged more British firms to join the Ethical Trading Initiative, which brings together businesses, trade unions and NGOs to tackle poor working conditions in developing countries.

He said: “The Ethical Trading Initiative needs to be strengthened. Major British retailers have still not joined the initiative.”