Exclusive: Multinational corporations
must advance Fairtrade in order to see
it become routine industry practice,
says Ben & Jerry's global values-
led sourcing manager Cheryl Pinto.
In the past 10 years, the price of bananas
in the UK has halved, whilst the cost of
production has almost doubled. It means,
says Pinto, that bananas are now bought
and sold so cheaply in the UK that many
of the farmers and workers who grow
them are being trapped in poverty.
The key to effecting change, she says,
is unsurprisingly big business but led by
their smaller peers. Large companies are
often looking to the smaller companies
to see how to achieve ethical standards
and, "fortunately a lot of these ethical
ways of working can often be easily
transferable to supply chains", she says.
If multinational corporations invest
in sustainable movements, such as
Fairtrade or the Rainforest Alliance,
it makes it attainable to the average
consumer: "Through multinational
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Fairtrade Business
Ben & Jerry's:
Multinationals must
lead us to a Fairtrade
future
Falling prices and rising costs have left
many banana farmers trapped in poverty
