Stick with Foncho
Fairtrade Fortnight this year is from 24th February to 9th March and the theme this year is Make Bananas Fair.
We love bananas – in fact they’re our favourite fruit. In the UK alone we eat over five billion a year.
In the last 10 years, the UK supermarket sector has almost halved the shelf price of loose bananas while the cost of producing them has doubled, trapping many of the farmers and workers who grow them in a cycle of poverty.
Does that sound fair to you?
Our campaign aims to transform the banana industry. We want to make bananas fair. This means that every banana farmer and worker earns enough to have a decent standard of living, works in conditions that are safe and has rights and benefits. It also means bananas are produces in a way that is environmentally sustainable too.
More than 1.2 billion Fairtrade bananas are now sold in the UK each year. That’s one in every three bananas we buy.
Fairtrade provides a vital safety net for banana farmers and workers. The Fairtrade safety net is the minimum price that farmers get to cover the costs of sustainable production, and a premium on top of this which they choose to invest either in community projects or in their business.
Fairtrade alone is not enough to end the price wars. We have to go further to ensure the price we pay for our bananas is sustainable, so that the whole industry can be made fair for farmers and workers.
Colombian banana farmer, Foncho.
Foncho is a banana farmer from Cienaga in Colombia. This Fairtrade Fortnight, he’s coming to the UK and he’s on a mission to make bananas fair.
Before Foncho’s co-operative Coobafrio was certified as Fairtrade, Foncho often struggled to make ends meet – it was a hard life.
But since becoming Fairtrade, Foncho receives a fair price for his bananas, which means he can afford to care for his loved ones and send his daughter to college.
We need to act now so that all banana farmers and workers get a fair deal.
This Fairtrade Fortnight Stick with Foncho to make bananas fair.
