UK: go nuts for Fairtrade!
Supermarkets to sell Fairtrade nuts for the first time

UK shoppers can buy Fairtrade nuts in UK supermarkets for the first time from March – Brazil nuts at branches of Tesco and roasted, salted peanuts at the Co-op nationwide.

The brazil nuts will be available from this year's Fairtrade Fortnight, March 6-19. The peanuts will be available from late March.

Coinacapa brazil nut gatherers in Bolivia. by ‘Coinacapa/Twin Trading’

This new addition to the range of Fairtrade marked products will contribute to Fairtrade’s key objective of improving the lives of some of the world’s most disadvantaged farmers and gatherers – nut producers and their families.

Consumers are also able to by Fairtrade brazil nuts from independent stores, thanks to fair trade co-operative Equal Exchange. These organic-Fairtrade nuts from Peru were the first nuts ever to be awarded the Fairtrade Mark.

Gathering Brazil nuts from the heart of the Amazonian rainforest is an exhausting task and provides a vital source of income to the hundreds of farming families in Bolivia who are supplying Tesco and will now be guaranteed a fair return for their hard work. Meanwhile, peanut (groundnut) farmers in Malawi will also benefit from the independent guarantee of a fair deal provided by the Fairtrade Mark.

The growers' organisations supplying the supermarkets have been certified Fairtrade thanks to the on-going technical assistance and support work of Twin Trading, the alternative trading company behind leading hot drinks firm Cafédirect, the Day Chocolate Company and fresh fruit pioneers AgroFair UK. This has been facilitated by the long-term partnership between TWIN and the Fairtrade Foundation.

"These are the first steps towards opening up the mainstream market for Fairtrade nuts in Europe," says Duncan White, a Director of Twin Trading. "For the first time these nut gatherers and farmers will have a real say in the trading relationships and supply chains that they are involved in. These are great quality nuts and we hope UK nut lovers will also buy them knowing that they will be helping the people who harvested the nuts on the other side of the world lift their lives outside of the poverty trap."

Significant market opportunities exist with these products - both because of the ever increasing popularity of Fairtrade and because of the huge rise in purchasing of nuts. Sales of Brazil nuts have reportedly increased by 30% year on year.

The peanuts are the world's first to carry the Fairtrade Mark and will be sold in 50g bags under the Co-op's own label. This comes at a vital time for the Malawian growers where production has been badly hit by the devastating droughts in Southern Africa.

The Brazil nuts are from the Pando region of Bolivia, from the Amazon Rainforest region and are a vital part of attempts to save the rainforest, providing local communities with a way to earn their living which does not involve cutting down precious timber resources. The nuts will be sold in 150g bags at Tesco under the supermarket’s own brand

One nut gatherer from the COINACAPA co-operative Benedicto Gonzalez says, “Since we started the co-operative it’s as if we’ve gained our freedom. It feels like we’re not slaves any more. We have more income, more work and more dignity.”

Andy Good of Equal Exchange adds, “To have a healthy product, packed full of the goodness that television’s Gillian McKeith talks about and to be able to demonstrate that a Fairtrade supply chain works for the nut collectors, is a double win for Equal Exchange. Not only are the nuts selling well because of the high quality and real brazil flavours, demand has been high in general as the world market has been struggling to meet ever increasing demand for brazil nuts.”

Equal Exchange works hard to get as much additional value into the farmers’ supply chain as possible. Hence Equal Exchange Brazil Nut Oil – the only brazil nut oil in the UK. The oil is processed and bottled in Peru and shipped over to the UK. Equal Exchange was delighted when this oil struck Gold in the Great Taste Awards 2005 for its very delicate nutty flavour.

The world nut market is dominated by a small number of large trading houses, with local traders and processors controlling supply chains in some of the world’s poorest countries. Those at the bottom of the chain – small-scale gatherers and farmers – normally gain little in return for their intensive work whilst their crops generate significant returns to those further up the supply chain. Many have seen the real value of their crop decrease year on year and they are struggling to survive.

Twin Trading is developing additional sources of these nuts together with other varieties and is working in partnership with Equal Exchange. Duncan White adds, "We want to act as an example to the nut industry and show an alternative way of doing business that is viable, sustainable and equitable - and we want UK consumers to say no to paying 'peanuts' for the nuts they buy."

For more information contact Margaret Rooke on 0790 44 55 666.

Twin & Twin Trading
Charlotte Jarman
1 Curtain Road
London EC2A 3LT
Tel:  +44 (0) 20 7422 0755
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7375 1221
Mob: +44 (0) 0746 634 272
www.twin.org.uk