Fairly Nuts

There is, of course, one retailer that manages to be both supermarket and pioneer in the Fairtrade world. The Coop(erative) stands tall among its rivals for its pro-active and bold attitude towards Fairtrade.

The Coop seem to bring new products to market at an entirely different pace from its rivals, and has built up an impressive list of ‘Fairtrade firsts’. Following the introduction of the world’s first Fairtrade grapefruits in 2007, they brought us Fairtrade fruit lollies and two smoothies last summer. For the last couple of weeks you’ve been able to buy the first Fairtrade-marked Sparkling Brut from South Africa, and their cotton wool products have just been converted too. This is giving real support to  producer coops in new countries and regions. In particular, some of their coffee comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country rarely mentioned in Fairtrade materials. They also lead the way in using Fairtrade sugar and cocoa as ingredients in composite products.  Last week I found yet another two new chocolate puddings in the freezer section!

Add to this their consistent financial and in-kind support for local Fairtrade initiatives and the total switch of their hot beverages and you get a Fairtrade champion that deserves a lot of credit, which it rarely gets. People like Brad Hill of the Coop, who continue to be agitators in the retail world, should get just as much recognition as the campaigners who maintain demand in their communities. On this note, congratulations to both Sophi Tranchell MBE of Divine and Bruce Crowther MBE of Garstang fame.

I have a bit of an issue with Coop bananas, but I trust it is being worked on! I’ve been told that a total switch would need the support of all the regional Coop societies, and given the profitability of  bananas some of the societies in poorer or more competitive regions of the UK are reluctant to go 100%. Remember that Sainsbury’s boasted that they would absorb over £4 million in costs to make their switch, but then they are a bully-boy giant over three times the size of Coop.

So does my support of the Coop totally contradict what I’ve said below about a reliance on big business to grow the success of Fairtrade? I’m not sure. The Coop is not just like the others. At the moment all the regional societies under the umbrella Cooperative Group make up just over 4% of the UK grocery market, though this will rise to about 8% with its takeover of Somerfield (surely a good thing, Somerfield were hopeless on Fairtrade). More importantly than size is structure, as the Coop is a consumer cooperative, not a corporation. Control of the organisation is democratically controlled by members and each member has one vote (unlike shareholders whose shares equal votes) and profits are distributed according to how much you use the Cooperative’s services. It is, though, still a supermarket, rapidly replacing local corner shops with its centralised distribution model. I’m not sure I can have it both ways. If you feel strongly, please persuade me.