Sales of Fairtrade bananas rose six per cent in 2011, but other fruit lines suffered a 22 per cent year-on-year sales slump.
The news comes in an opening week of Fairtrade Fortnight that has seen the Co-operative Group announce it is switching to 100 per cent Fairtrade bananas.
The move should mean that 2012 will see an improvement on the almost 176,000 tonnes of Fairtrade bananas sold in the UK last year. The Fairtrade Foundation believes the slump in other fruit volumes, which are down to some 5,750t, is due to the economic downturn and the retail squeeze on shelf space.
Rosemary Lalley, commercial executive at importer Univeg, explained: “The last two to three years have been very challenging times. But we are looking at retail and range strategies that offer something for the consumer to buy into.”
One example, Lalley said, was lemons because a retailer might want to offer unwaxed fruit. “They only have room for one SKU, and our Faitrade lemons are unwaxed and also seedless, so we are ticking three boxes and getting Fairtrade on the shelf,” she said.
Another example might be on promotions where retailers could offer 400g punnets of Fairtade grapes at the same price point as 500g of conventional fruit. “We are working very closely with buyers to see how Fairtrade can link in on conventional promotional activity,” said Lalley.
The Co-operative, a Fairtrade pioneer in the UK, may have lagged behind Sainsbury’s and Waitrose in selling only Fairtrade bananas, but it claims its banana sourcing policy could be a blueprint for feeding the world’s growing population.
It is linking up with fellow co-operatives, 23 of which are made up of thousands of smallholder growers from Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru.
Daniel Morey, business development manager at the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “Although it has been a challenging time for the Fairtrade fresh fruit category, as the retail sales show, we are definitely not turning our back on it. Sainsbury’s, as part of the 2020 plans, has committed to all pineapple and avocado going Fairtrade. The Co-operative by 2013 want to source more Fairtrade and fruit will be a part.”
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