People in the UK Go Bananas! for Fairtrade. 

27 February 2009 

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Hundreds of thousands of people in Great Britain and Ireland will Go Bananas!  from noon on Friday 6 March to noon Saturday 7 March by eating one Fairtrade banana each as part of a world record attempt.  They’ll all be trying to break the world record for the greatest number of people eating a Fairtrade banana in a 24-hour period. More than 345,600 people are already signed up to take part a week before the event and the number is growing daily on the Fairtrade Foundation website, where the tally is being recorded.

From Aberdeen to Belfast, Cardiff to the Isle of Man, Plymouth to Glasgow; young and old, in churches, mosques, synagogues, schools, universities, work places, restaurants, cafés and shops, will be going ‘bananatastic’ – to support small farmers and workers in developing countries who rely on the Fairtrade price to earn a sustainable living and improve their communities.

Events will range from banana afternoon teas, banana school events, bars serving banana cocktails, banana dancing, banana plays, banana fishing games, Fairtrade suppers with banana desserts, and lots of other weird and wonderful banana-themed events. Go to www.fairtrade.org. uk/gobananas for a full list of events and to download banana resources.

The world’s first Fairtrade Town, Garstang in Lancashire will munch away at the same time as the USA’s first Fairtrade town of Media in Pennsylvania. The two will be joined via a live video link. Leeds will host its own banana-eating event in the city centre on Friday 6 March from midday onwards, with entertainment provided by a steel band and banana street theatre company. The Fairtrade London Campaign has organised a banana-eating flash mob in Trafalgar Square on Saturday (7 March) at 11.30 with hundreds expected to attend.

Many restaurants and cafés are taking part, and in the Midlands, the Birmingham Museum of Art will be having a banana afternoon tea in the Edwardian tea rooms. A special Fairtrade banana dessert will be on the menu of all restaurants and cafés at the Barbican Arts Centre in London. Staff at the Royal Lancaster Hotel plan to monkey around by dressing up in ape suits and presenting guests with a Fairtrade banana on arrival.

More than 1,000 pupils from Bradford Grammar School in West Yorkshire will join in the fun and eat a Fairtrade banana on Friday (6 March).  Fairtrade Co-ordinator and Languages teacher Liz Kingsley says: ‘We are taking part in the Go Bananas! event because we think it’s a fun way to get across the serious message.’

Catering company Compass has been working hard to ensure they have sufficient Fairtrade bananas available in the schools, university and workplaces they supply for Go Bananas! and will also be running special events with both customers and staff.  Companies are also going ape for the campaign with firms such as Tate & Lyle, the Wellcome Trust, Department of Works and Pension, and KPMG planning events with their staff. In Tate & Lyle’s ‘banana marquee’, staff in ‘bananaman’ costumes will give out 500 Fairtrade bananas and sales and marketing senior managers will sport Go Bananas T-shirts.

Retailers Tesco, Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury’s have had a specially designed Go Fairtrade bananas! sticker placed onto all their bagged Fairtrade bananas since the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight.  One in four bananas in the UK are now Fairtrade and sales of these packs are flying off the shelves as the support for the national event continues to grow. Fairtrade banana sales grew by 27% in 2008 as estimated retail sales reached a whopping £185 million. One aim of the Fairtrade Foundation’s five-year strategy, Tipping the Balance, is to double the number of Fairtrade bananas in the UK by 2012, thus helping more banana farmers and workers to benefit from the Fairtrade system.

But behind all the yellow-themed fun there is a serious message. The Fairtrade Foundation has launched a new report Unpeeling the banana trade which reveals the true cost of cheap bananas and unfair trade rules (download it here).  In the UK, between 2002 and 2008, the price of loose conventional bananas has been cut dramatically in a series of price wars by big supermarkets. The research shows the impact is felt somewhere along the supply chain. It is usually the growers who are often forced to sell their fruit for very little, often less than it cost them to grow.

Fairtrade bananas currently come from 57 certified groups in ten countries in the Caribbean, West Africa and Latin America.

Banana producers Cornelius Lynch and Stephanie Joachim from the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA) are touring around the UK as part of Fairtrade Fortnight, visiting Fairtrade Towns, Fairtrade Schools and companies. WINFA, which was established in 1982 to WINFA to promote social and economic welfare of small-scale farmers and workers. Producers in the Caribbean remain almost entirely dependent on UK sales.  

Cornelius Lynch says: ‘Fairtrade has contributed in no short measure to the lives and livelihoods of many farming communities and the economic and social stability as a whole.’

As well as the USA, other countries will also be taking part in Go Bananas! including Ghana, Finland, Germany, Belgium and St. Vincent in the Windward Islands.

Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation adds: ‘We are calling on people to make a simple decision when they shop. By choosing Fairtrade consumers are ensuring producers are given the chance to receive a minimum price and Fairtrade premium, which in turn enables them to earn a decent living and support their families. So please Go Fairtrade Bananas! not just during Fairtrade Fortnight but as part of your weekly shop.’

The event will be the finale of this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight (23 February – 7 March), themed Make it Happen, Choose Fairtrade, as it draws to a close.

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Notes to Editors

1. As a warm up to the Banana event, Bolton Wanderers first team players will wear Fairtrade cotton T-shirts during the match warm up against Newcastle United on 1 March. A film on Fairtrade will be screened to supporters during half time and Fairtrade Fortnight will be featured in the match programme. On Monday 2 March, over 1,000 primary and secondary school children from across Bolton will pack into the Premier Suite at the Reebok Stadium to take part in ‘banana fun’ and an educational event on Fairtrade.
2. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 70% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 59 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.  
3. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs &  spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys & cotton wool. 
4. For Go Bananas! resources go to www.fairtrade.org.uk/gobananas 
5. The world record is not an official record attempt but an awareness raising event and therefore will not be monitored by any record body.
6. An animation has been produced to encourage people to register for the world record. Matt Helders’ remix of Roots Manuva classic Again and Again features in the Fairtrade Foundation’s first ever viral animation starring Fairtrade bananas. The track has been donated by the artists who are known for their long standing support for Fairtrade and trade justice.