Sainsbury's announces further product ranges to switch to Fairtrade

The Fairtrade Foundation welcomes Sainsbury’s announcement today that it will convert 100% of its own-brand tea to Fairtrade, followed by 100% of roast and ground coffee, and in a separate move, will switch to sourcing Fairtrade certified cotton for its best-selling T-shirt in the TU range. This follows the landmark conversion of all Sainsbury’s bananas to Fairtrade this year.

Today’s move on tea will triple the amount of Fairtrade certified tea sold in the UK, increasing the total volume from 3,000 to 9,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to 10% of the total UK tea market. Smallholders and estate workers from South India, Darjeeling, Assam and Sri Lanka and East Africa, including Kenya, will see increased levels of sales in the UK Fairtrade market and for the first time tea farmers and estates in Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries , will sell their tea under Fairtrade terms.

On coffee, Sainsbury’s switch to Fairtrade in their roast and ground range will also have significant positive impacts for small farmer groups in Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica and will mean almost 2,000 tonnes of Sainsbury’s Fairtrade roast and ground coffee will be bought by shoppers each year.

This commitment from Sainsbury’s will mean that tea and coffee producers can look forward to being able to make improvements in their communities through increased Fairtrade sales and the estimated £2 million in Fairtrade premiums they will receive each year. The switch on tea means that some of the world’s most impoverished farmers will benefit from direct access to UK Fairtrade markets. At Makomboki Tea Factory in Kenya for example, previous Fairtrade sales have allowed the smallholders who own the company to start work on the renovation of one of the classrooms at Makomboki Primary School, the addition of a maternity wing to the dispensary in Kandenderu and water projects in several areas, including piped water, bore holes and wells. A plot of land has been bought for the building of a library, dispensary and social hall. With additional sales generated by sales in Sainsbury’s, Fairtrade premiums can be invested in further longer term projects to benefit the entire community.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade said: “This is a great pick-me-up for tea and coffee producers. We are especially delighted that for the first time, tea workers and small farming communities in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world* will be participating in Fairtrade for the first time. We congratulate Sainsbury’s on providing further opportunitities to bring Fairtrade into the mainstream and introduce new people to Fairtrade. It is desperately needed – over recent decades, the real price of tea on the conventional market has fallen by a shocking 54%, causing misery across tea-growing communities. So this is just the break tea growers need and we hope that the move will act as a wake-up call to other retailers and brands to keep pace, by also switching product categories to Fairtrade and by working closely with the producer groups that supply them.

“This is the largest volume commitment to Fairtrade tea to date, and the most significant since the very first product launches by Traidcraft, Teadirect and Clipper Tea over a decade ago.

“By extending the range of clothes made from Fairtrade certified cotton in the TU range, cotton farmers in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Mali, who have also seen their livelihoods destroyed by falling prices on the world market, can now look forward to a brighter future thanks to the growing UK Fairtrade market.”

This move by Sainsbury’s, one of Britain’s top three food retailers, is the latest example of a trend that has seen sales of Fairtrade products double every two years since the start of the decade. Today’s announcement will see Fairtrade move further into the mainstream and will be a big step in meeting rising consumer demand for products that have been produced and traded with respect and fairness, guaranteeing that the producer behind the product has received a better deal.

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For further information, phone 020 7440 7686/7695 or mobile 07770 957 451 or email eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk or martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk