This sponsorship deal has created some interesting debate. Mainly about where you buy your fruit from, but if you’re like most cyclists you’ll eat several hundred bananas a year, so do you care where they are coming from? This press release highlights the issues, follow the links at the bottom for some interesting facts and figures…
 Farm workers in Ghana – benefit from the Fairtrade premium |
Fairtrade fruit company Agrofair UK has come to the rescue of the annual Action 100 cycle ride, promising the charity a donation of 800 bananas to prevent its cyclists from “hitting the wall” and running out of crucial energy resources during the bank holiday event.
The 100 mile ride, which takes off from start points in Bristol and Bath on 27th August, had difficulty sourcing the hundreds of bananas it needs for its hard working riders. The charity was told by normally generous Bristol supermarkets that they were unable to meet customer demand, let alone provide charity donations after an international banana blight had pushed local prices to a premium, and some had already used their charity budget
allocation.
Thankfully Fairtrade came to the cyclists’ aid. Clive Marriott, Commercial Manager of AgroFair UK, says: “We are delighted to provide bananas to support such a worthwhile event. Fairtrade bananas taste great and buying them helps ‘make poverty history’ for farmers and their families in developing countries. Fairtrade fruit is kinder to the consumer, to the farmers and to the planet, as it is grown to strict environmental
standards.”
Agrofair is a Fairtrade fruit company owned 50% by its growers in Africa and Latin America, and 50% by development organisations, including Twin Trading in the UK – the organisation which helped launch Fairtrade brands Cafédirect and Divine Chocolate – together with other ethical investors. The ‘Fairtrade premium’ is a sum of money included in every Fairtrade product, which goes straight back to the farming organisations, who in turn decide democratically how it should be spent to benefit the community. In a neat link to the charity bike ride, in Ghana some of last year’s premium money was spent on providing a bicycle to each of the 500 workers on banana farms there. This helped with long and difficult journeys to and from work for the workers.
“It is definitely a weight off our minds that Agrofair has come forward and promised us the bananas we need for this year’s Action 100. It’s a very generous gesture,” said Community Fundraising Manager, Jennifer Reid. “Now we can turn our attention back to raising money for an important medical charity.”
