Waitrose plans fair trade push

Waitrose, the supermarket chain, is ramping its investment in fair trade offering to coincide with this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight.

The retailer plans to double sales of ethical goods over the next year and will accelerate growth by switching a number of core product lines to fair trade. It will also be the first UK supermarket to switch all its banana lines to fair trade.

Steven Esom, Waitrose managing director, says: “Customers are increasingly thinking about the origins of the food they buy and the Fairtrade mark is a widely recognised way of ensuring that communities in the developing world are getting a fair deal.

“We are confident that our fair trade sales will double within the next financial year, as ethical spending becomes a mainstream consideration on customers’ shopping lists.”

Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership, launched an own-brand fair trade coffee and chocolate last November.