The survey was commissed for the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight, which is highlighting the impact of British supermarket price disputes with banana farmers, workers and their families.
Prices of bananas have nearly halved over the past decade, falling from £1.10kg in March 2002 to 68pkg for most of 2013, according to the Fairtrade Foundation. The UK consumes 5bn bananas every year, as shown in the infographic below.
The resulting drop in export prices for bananas in producing countries means an ever-tightening squeeze on the amount producers earn for their bananas. This combined with escalating production and living costs, means tens of thousands of farmers and workers’ standards of living have progressively worsened in the past decade, trapping them in poverty and forcing job losses, Fairtrade claimed.
10,000 people
More 10,000 people have already signed the Fairtrade Foundation petition since its launch, asking the government to investigate the impact of retailer pricing practices.
Fairtrade Foundation chief executive Michael Gidney, said: “Even in times of austerity, people in the UK do care about the people who produce the foods we enjoy. They clearly want supermarkets to be responsible. More and more people understand that, when things are too cheap, someone somewhere is paying the price.”
Of those surveyed, 60% called on government to step in to ensure retailers sold bananas at a price that ensured producers could earn a decent living. Over half (67%) said they were concerned about producers living conditions.
“This poll shows that there is a public mandate for change,” claimed Gidney. “It is a clear message to government to show leadership and stop this race to the bottom, where the price of cheap bananas is poverty in developing countries.”
However, 40% of consumers believed the price of bananas had actually increased in the last few years, while only 7% knew the price had fallen.
Fairtrade is calling on secretary of state for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable to co-ordinate across government departments to investigate retailer pricing on bananas and evaluate its impact on producers.
Dominant position
The foundation is also campaigning UK retailers to use their dominant position in banana supply chains responsibly, reflecting the true cost of production by paying fair prices to producers, as retailers do in other European countries.
The retail price of bananas has increased in France, Italy and Germany by 10%, 3.9% and 7.2% respectively, Fairtrade claimed.
Fairtrade claimed that while banana prices had improved since its campaign began in 1994, intense price competition between retailers was preventing progress towards making the whole banana industry fair.
One in three bananas sold in the UK is Fairtrade and three major supermarkets have committed to selling only Fairtrade bananas.
Meanwhile, last week Fairtrade unveiled a giant billboard made from over 5,000 bananas on Common, London to draw attention to its campaign.