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Stop supermarkets abusing their buyer power!

Supermarkets are the most powerful actors along tropical fruit supply chains. They make enormous profits by abusing this power and paying unsustainably low prices to their fruit suppliers.

For hundreds of thousands of workers in Latin America and Africa this can mean

  • failure to respect their fundamental human rights
  • not earning enough to feed their families properly or cover other basic household needs
  • poor working conditions
  • inadequate health and safety standards, including exposure to toxic agrochemicals, as well as environmental pollution and damage.

Small farmers also suffer, as many are forced out of business when the prices they are paid fail to even cover costs of production.

Make Fruit Fair! is asking the EU to regulate supermarket buyer power to reduce these negative impacts on workers, small farmers and their communities in the South. We are also calling for a revision of competition law to help limit the devastating consequences of the imbalance of power along supermarket supply chains. And we need your help! Please sign the petition below!

“I appreciate that the European Commission has been seeking to encourage better buying practices for retailers but urge the European Commission to ensure that the code of practice currently being developed

  • applies to overseas and indirect suppliers so that they are able to make complaints about supermarket behaviour to the enforcement body
  • is properly enforced and independently monitored by the creation of an ombudsman or another appropriate body
  • I also urge the European Commission to initiate a complete revision of competition law as the only way to effectively redress the devastating consequences for workers in supplier countries of the growth in unregulated supermarket buyer power.
Simultaneously tackling the problem of supermarket power, as well as seeking to improve their buying practices, provides the best opportunity to create fairer supermarket supply chains for the benefit of workers, small farmers and their communities. "

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5913 have signed already. Help us to reach 10,000

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To sign the petition, please fill in the following form with your details.

 
 

Reasons to sign

  • Fair Trade should be routine. Why should supermarkets & other big buyers be able to exploit workers anywhere in the world? It is the 21st century now- someone should tell them Slavery was abolished over 200 years ago!

    — zed dee - london —

  • Every person has the right to education - poor pay and unfair conditions in developing nations producing fruit ensures that this Human Right fails for hundreds of thousands of children. I believe the EU cand and should so something to help right this wrong!

    — James Houston - Bristol —

  • The system at the moment for supplying fruit is just not fair, I'm no better than another person even if they are miles away from where I live. Therefore I need to be considerate to how my actions affect their lives. Whether we like it or not, as humans in this present age we are all connected to each other and accountable for how we treat our fellow man.

    — Hannah Godley - Sheffield —

  • I think everybody deserv to eat good food and live in normal condition, I dont buy fruits from Big Supermarkets, all the time buy in the market from primary producers, young peopel who go to sell their products whit their grandmother or father . They are the best, u can feel the taste of the fruit. In every country and city are places like this, suggest to try even one time to see the difference.

    — Henrieta Schreiner - Budapest —

  • Family in South America, beleive in human rights.

    — Rozz Andos - Greater London —

  • A sustainable food system has to be a just food system. Everyone should have the right to work in a safe, healthy environment, educate their children and put enough food on the table.

    — Victoria Williams - Brighton —

  • All people must respect the work of other. Any work must be payd correctly. It's a nonsens that many hours of work are payd less and less because of decisions of people leaving far away. Those becom reacher because of the work of the first one wich become more and more poor. Please encourage this action.

    — Marguerite BOUGET - Gland —

  • It's a common responsibility!

    — Margot Vingerhoedt - Antwerp —

  • supermarkets are making enormous profits from all the food producers. They should be forced to pay a fair price, a price that allows the producers, the agricultural workers to have a living wage.

    — alain hertzmann - London —

  • I believe that supermarkets have too much power in the food chain and that farmers should always be paid a fair price

    — Carolyn Steel - London —

  • One small thing we of the affluent west can do is to try and ensure that the farmers in poorer countries who we rely on for providing so many of our foodstuffs, receive fair pay and fair conditions. If this means we have to pay a little more for the produce, so be it.

    — rick pike - totnes —

  • One small thing we of the affluent west can do is to try and ensure that the farmers in poorer countries who we rely on for providing so many of our foodstuffs, receive fair pay and fair conditions. If this means we have to pay a little more for the produce, so be it.

    — rick pike - totnes —

  • It just seems obvious to me.

    — Hannah Buddle - Swansea —

  • I'M EVERY WOMAN, if one woman suffers, I suffer. Women control the food shopping in most families. We decide where our money is spent, and on what. Wield the Power!

    — Elaine DiSerio - Revere —

  • An injury to one is an injury to all.

    — Douglas Jordan - Kensington —

  • I love tropical fruit but I am very upset that women and also men are abused by big consortiums. I know that refusing to eat these fruits will not help but in the future every time I do eat them I will think of the women who work so hard.

    — Beverly Bowden - Surrey —

  • Fair trade is a process whereby everyone benefits, creating positive spin offs from liveable wages, healthier growing systems ... the list goes on. Unfair trade just makes no sense - short or long term

    — Hetty Selwyn - North Walsham —

  • For our food system to be sustainable the needs of all its participants need to considered. If small scale producers are not supported supply will increasingly be restricted to those big enough to meet the demands of the supermarkets. Consumer choice will suffer alongside the small supplier.

    — clare panjwani - london —

  • So that we can enjoy fruit we can't grow in the UK without worrying too much about its provenance

    — rebecca luff - brighton —

  • So that we can enjoy fruit we can't grow in the UK without worrying too much about its provenance

    — rebecca luff - brighton —

Supported by

  • — Union Solidarity International - GBR —

  • — Association of Conscious Cosumers - HUN —

  • — MISEREOR - DEU —

  • — Forum Fairer Handel - DEU —

  • — Vamos e.V. - DEU —

  • — Supermacht NL - NLD —

  • — Südwind-Institut - DEU —

  • — Artisans du Monde - FRA —

  • — SOMO - NLD —

  • — Weltladen-Dachverband - DEU —

  • — Euroban - GBR —

  • — Tescopoly - GBR —

  • — BananaLink - GBR —

  • — NaZemi - CZE —

  • — BanaFair - Fair-Handelsorganisation - DEU —

  • — Peuples Solidaires - FRA —

Find out more

Partners

This website has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Banana Link, Peuples Solidaires, BanaFair and NaZemi and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.