We were the first to support Fairtrade
We launched our long-term plan to 'mainstream'
Fairtrade products in ALL our stores. Another first for The Co-operative
Introduced the Fairtrade 'pledge' and 1st Fairtrade Bananas into the UK
Raising a glass of Fairtrade wine to community projects
Co-operative chocoholic!
We got even more Fairtrade Friendly and Fruity!
Raising a glass in South Africa and now South America
The UK’s first supermarket 'Bag for Life'
We are the first to convert our entire own-brand hot beverage category to Fairtrade
And we keep on adding – sparkling rose, charcoal and olive oil!
Sixteen years later and we now have Fairtrade beansprouts!!
We became the first major retailer to stock Café direct coffee in 1992, which became one of the first Fairtrade Marked products in 1994. This marked the beginning of our longstanding commitment to Fairtrade. We now stock an expanding range of Fairtrade products. Find out about our current coffee range.
We establish ourselves as the leading supermarket supporter of Fairtrade Fortnight. In-store promotional features are supplemented when we mobilised our members by calling for voluntary membership action in-store to help raise consumer awareness of Fairtrade.
We made the strategic decision to stock Fairtrade products in all stores nationwide, even the smallest community stores. This means we have the largest number of outlets selling Fairtrade products.
Today, all our stores stock a range of Fairtrade products including coffee, tea, chocolate, fruit and wine.
In partnership with The Co-operative Bank we launch the Fairtrade Pledge, which invites customers to pledge to buy one Fairtrade Mark product a month.
Bananas
We introduced the UK's first Fairtrade bananas. This move signalled a breakthrough in the campaign to support small, independent producers and showed our commitment to Fairtrade. When you choose Fairtrade Bananas you’re helping to improve the lives of many poor and marginalised producers.
Milk Chocolate
Another Fairtrade first - The Co-operative Milk Chocolate 45g became the UK's first own-brand product to carry the Fairtrade mark. The chocolate, produced in conjunction with Divine Chocolate, was the first step in our market-leading Fairtrade new product development strategy.
The Co-operative introduced Fairtrade Chilean Carmenère, which was the UK's first fairly-traded supermarket own-brand wine. We brought this to you via our partnership with Traidcraft – whose expertise in establishing fairly traded products helped to establish a programme of support for wine growers in Chile, even before internationally recognised Fairtrade standards had been developed.
We doubled the size of the Fairtrade chocolate market through our significant commitment when we converted all of our own-brand block chocolate to Fairtrade. Working with pioneer Fairtrade brand, Divine Chocolate and the 45000 strong Kuapa Kokoo co-operative in Ghana, this momentous step was to prove to become a significant milestone and a lasting partnership. Our Chocolate Report investigated the exploitation of farmers in West Africa and asked for customers to help us campaign for other supermarkets and major chocolate brands to also lend support to Fairtrade. We also introduced a Fairtrade Crispy White Chocolate and our own-brand Fairtrade chocolate cake. Both products were the first Fairtrade products of their kind, and are part of our continued exploration into innovative ways of bringing new kinds of Fairtrade products into our stores.
The Co-operative campaigns for and develops Fairtrade in communities and launched guides on how to become a 'Fairtrade town' and how schools can become 'Fairtrade friendly'.
Fruit
We introduced the world's first Fairtrade mangoes and pineapples. The first pineapples were grown by the Asoproagroin association of pineapple farmers in Costa Rica.
Coffee
We converted all our own-brand coffee to Fairtrade. We also launched our Coffee Report as part of this initiative – this campaigns for the industry to follow our lead and help create sustainable livelihoods for coffee growers through Fairtrade development.
At the beginning of 2006, we sourced five own-brand wines from the Du Toitskloof co-operative in South Africa. The wines are all produced from grapes grown by the 22 farms belonging to the wine co-operative.
In September 2006, The Co-operative launched the UK's first Fairtrade wines from Argentina.
In February we launched the UK's first supermarket Bag for Life which is made with Fairtrade-certified cotton. This directly led to the creation of hundreds of jobs in a small town in South India.
And we pledged to double our Fairtrade bananas sales by stocking them in all of our 3,000 food stores nationwide, including our smallest community stores in some of the most remote parts of the country.
In February we became the first UK supermarket to convert our entire own-brand hot beverage category - including iconic 99 Tea - to Fairtrade. In the same year we completed the switch of all our own-brand sugar to 100% Fairtrade.
In October we launched the UK’s first Fairtrade Fizz – a sparkling Chardonnay from the Western Cape of South Africa.
In December we became the first retailer to convert its entire own-brand cotton wool range to Fairtrade and for Christmas we introduced the first Fairtrade Chocolate Marc de Champagne Truffles.
In February we introduced the first Fairtrade product from Palestine - a branded Olive Oil then in April we introduced the first fairly-traded charcoal, working once again in partnership with Traidcraft in the absence of developed Fairtrade standards.
In September we introduced the UK’s first Fairtrade Sparkling Rosé, also from Du Toitskloof in South Africa.
And in October we became the first retailer to switch the sugar-based flower food on its Fairtrade flowers to Fairtrade.
In May we introduced the UK’s very first beansprouts grown from Fairtrade mung beans. We also introduced the UK's first Fairtrade blueberries firstly from South Africa and then from Chile.
