Cherry Burton Goes Bananas For Fairtrade Fortnight

Residents in an East Riding village will be playing host to a banana farmer from Colombia in Fairtrade Fortnight.

The Fairtrade Foundation has launched a new campaign Make Bananas Fair asking the UK public to help end the supermarket price wars, including a petition asking the government to urgently step in and investigate the impact of retailer pricing practices.

In the UK, we eat over 5 billion bananas a year; that’s 13 million each day. 80 per cent of the bananas bought in the UK are bought in supermarkets, most of whom are battling each other to keep their customers in a highly-competitive and public price war.

Aimeth Fernandez Angulo will talk about the hardships she faces making a living and the difference Fairtrade makes to her life, as well as giving a personal insight into how bananas are grown.

Bananas are now sold so cheaply by most UK supermarkets that many farmers and workers who produce them are being trapped in a cycle of poverty – with many still unable to afford to put enough food on the table for their families, or provide the basics such as education or healthcare.

Aimeth is visiting the village as part of a national campaign to publicise the plight of banana farmers across the world during Fairtrade Fortnight.

She will give a talk at St Michael’s Church Centre on Sunday, March 9th, which is open to all.

There will be an opportunity to interview and photograph Aimeth, along with children who are attending, at 2pm before the talk begins at 2.30pm.

Rector Richard Parkinson, the new rector of St Michael and All Saints Church, will also be there wearing a banana suit.

Ros Stanley, Secretary of Cherry Burton Fairtrade Group said:

“This will be a unique opportunity to hear first-hand what life is like for those on whom we depend for our favourite fruit. There is severe pressure in the banana business to keep prices as low as possible, but while we benefit from cheap bananas the growers are kept in poverty.”