22 September 2026

This week marks the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight, and I’m preparing for the ‘Together for Fair Pay’ event in London next week.

It will be a great honour to address Fairtrade partners and supporters as part of proceedings led by Dr Nyagoy Nyong’o MSc, Chair of the Fairtrade Foundation Board of Trustees; and Eleanor Harrison, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation.

The event’s objective is to build understanding and momentum around Fair Pay and drive fairer incomes for farmers, workers and businesses, with consideration for how we back more resilient supply chains.

This is an opportunity to present our Co-op as a long-standing champion of Fairtrade – we’re proud of the role we have played, mainstreaming Fairtrade in UK retail and globally since 1994. Fairtrade’s values match our own and our member-owners have mandated us to support it and continue pioneering it.

We are responsible for everything our members, customers and others expect from our brand. Taking responsibility for the availability, resilience and high sourcing standards of the ingredients core to Co-op lies with us – and it’s not just reputational, it’s not just about the environment either. Without responsible sourcing, producing the ingredients we rely upon can undermine the resilience we need for future food security.

Smallholders (i.e. farms under two hectares) produce a third of the world’s food and face severe barriers: extreme poverty; climate crises, including rising global temperatures; nature crises including destruction of ecosystems, and unfair trading practices. The smallholders need practical support.

That is why Co-op has committed to 100% Fairtrade sourcing of seven major commodities across our own-brand range. All our bananas, tea, chocolate confectionery, cocoa, coffee, bagged sugar, roses and South African wine are Fairtrade and we return more than £4 million in Fairtrade Premium to farmers and workers each year.

Our Fairtrade partnership is vital to building resilience for the estimated 250,000 smallholder farmers and workers in our supply chains. Recently, as part of our big annual member-owner survey, 42% asked Co-op to do even more to create sustainable food supply chains. And the timing of this is critical.

Bananas are under threat from the spread of pests and diseases; 50% of land used to grow coffee and cocoa is expected to vanish over the next 25 years, and many international agricultural workers in supply chains like tea and flowers are among the poorest in the world. This could all be exacerbated by the unprecedented El Niño, expected to further challenge global communities.

Within our hired labour banana supply chains, Co-op is closing the living wage gap in countries where the Fairtrade Premium and minimum price cannot do it alone. This year we have committed to the Fairtrade Living Wage Reference Price, which includes an additional voluntary contribution paid to workers, to close the living wage gap across its whole hired labour banana supply chain. These payments will be backdated to 2024.

Responsible retailing is not a ‘nice to do’. Fairtrade is core to how we redress the balance and deliver commercial resilience in complex, vulnerable supply chains.

As an independent, trusted ethical and sustainability certification, Fairtrade guarantees a fair price for farmers and workers, setting a floor price that covers the cost of production to protect farmers against market shocks, which are becoming all the more prevalent.

The Fairtrade Premium is an independently set and non-negotiable premium that producer communities democratically decide to spend for social, economic and environmental development. Fairtrade standards address key social, environmental and economic risks.

Unless businesses scale their support for credible fair trading with farming communities, they are risking their supply chain assurance, and any business model built upon trade of these products.

Fairtrade is more relevant than ever and key to the delivery of commercial and sustainability goals.

During this Fairtrade Fortnight, we have another great opportunity within our Co-op to consider the role it plays in our business and, with support of others, the role it will play as part of our national food security into the long term.

ChooseFairtrade

For more information about Fairtrade at Co-op, visit here.