Sainsbury's: Ensuring Ethical Sourcing With Fairtrade

Over the last 20 years, Sainsbury's's and Fairtrade have been working in partnership to ensure ethical sourcing, fair wages and better working conditions, addressing key supply chain risks such as poverty, poor labour practices and environmental degradation.

As one of Fairtrade's largest retail partners, Sainsbury's champions and supports the communities which pick and grow the food people enjoy every day.

The supermarket giant sells Fairtrade-certified products across its range, including tea, coffee, bananas, wine, sugar and nuts, while also contributing more Fairtrade Premium than any other UK retailer.

Through the partnership, Sainsbury's and Fairtrade are working collaboratively with suppliers and producers to collectively address challenges and risks where the products are grown.

A commitment to ethical tea production

All of Sainsbury's black tea is Fairtrade, underscoring a commitment to sourcing its customers' favourite products while working with tea farmers and workers to support their livelihoods and futures.

As a result of this, Sainsbury's is projected to become the largest retailer of Fairtrade tea in the UK.

Tea is grown all over the world, often in regions facing the full effect of climate change and associated challenges such as soil degradation, water scarcity and biodiversity loss.

Farmers who work within the tea supply chain also face risks and challenges such as poverty, gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) and poor working conditions.

Through the partnership Sainsbury's will ensure tea farmers and workers are paid a minimum secure price for every kilogram of tea bought. This will result in an expected increase of the Fairtrade Premium that farmers and workers earn to over £1m (approx US$1.3m) annually.

Pioneering sustainable sourcing partnerships

The retailer is also strongly committed to sustainable sourcing through its work with Fairtrade, including in areas around fairer pricing, better working conditions and environmental practices, as well as fairer terms of trade for farmers and workers.

In 2024, Fairtrade producers earned over £6 million (approx US$8m) in Fairtrade Premium through sales of own-brand products at Sainsbury's.

When a product is Fairtrade, it means that producers earn the Fairtrade Minimum Price for their product, which aims to cover the cost of sustainable production, as well as a Fairtrade Premium – an additional amount which goes into a communal fund for farmers and workers to use to improve their livelihoods and address risks they are facing, such as the impacts of climate change.

As one of the largest retailers of Fairtrade products in the UK, Sainsbury's believes that Fairtrade certification means its products meet rigorous social, economic and environmental standards and supports farmers to implement more sustainable farming practices that protect the environment for future generations.

In 2024, Sainsbury's supported over 130 producer organisations in 29 countries, reaching tens of thousands of Fairtrade farmers and workers.

Building resilience for a sustainable future

As well as sourcing within Fairtrade terms and the benefits its brings to producers, there is also the development of an innovative approach with Fairtrade which focuses on building resilience amongst tea, coffee and banana producers. This enables greater collaborative action to address challenges and risks where the products are grown.

The Resilience Building Initiative (RBI) will bring together producers across tea, coffee and bananas to help the supermarket create more robust and sustainable supply chains and ensure the benefits of Fairtrade drive long-lasting, positive impacts to communities.

The RBI will enable Sainsbury's to collaboratively identify human rights and environmental challenges and forthcoming risks with producers whilst building longer-term partnerships with producers that enable them to better plan and invest in their future.

In addition, the initiative will seek to provide opportunities for insight sharing across the regions and producer groups Sainsbury's supplies from, as well as galvanising wider industry action through specific interventions by attracting funding to address identified risks and supporting advocacy efforts.

The initiative is part of Sainsbury's's wider approach to securing long-term partnerships and working collaboratively across its supply chains and sectors.

This represents a significant step forward in Sainsbury's commitment to ethical sourcing and sustainability. The supermarket also plays an integral role in shaping the initiative with Fairtrade. 

How Fairtrade Premium makes a difference

Producer Spotlight: Sukambizi Association Trust, Malawi

For years, many people living in the Mount Malanje region of southern Malawi had to collect water from contaminated rivers and streams – until the Sukambizi Association Trust invested Fairtrade Premium in a clean water project. Using Fairtrade Premium earned from tea sales, Sukambizi built a 35km pipeline to bring water to over 40 villages. For the first time, families now have access to clean drinking water in their own homes. This has had a number of positive knock-on effects, including children being able to regularly attend school and adults knowing they can work without being ill from waterborne diseases.

Rose Mayeso, tea farmer at Sukambizi, said: "When you buy Fairtrade tea, we are able to live a better life."

Sainsbury's invests in living wages for banana workers

100% of Sainsbury's bananas are proudly Fairtrade. In 2023, alongside eight other retailers, the retailer committed to supporting workers employed on large banana plantations towards earning a living wage by 2027.

In 2024, Sainsbury's confirmed it will pay its contribution to support workers to earn a fairer wage, three years ahead of the industry deadline.

Since 2000, Fairtrade producers have earned an estimated £75 million through sales of Fairtrade bananas at Sainsbury's.

To make this happen, the supermarket worked collaboratively with Fairtrade and its banana supplier Fyffes to introduce a mechanism that enables Sainsbury's to pay an additional contribution on top of the Fairtrade Minimum Price and Fairtrade Premium, which contributes towards reducing living wage gaps for workers on plantations within its banana supply chain.

The contributions are bespoke to the Sainsbury's supply chain, reflecting the volumes of bananas they buy. Workers receive this money through a bonus issued through Fairtrade Premium Committees.

Furthermore, Sainsbury's has moved to longer-term sourcing commitments with banana suppliers to provide them with greater stability and financial security. The Fairtrade Premium can also be used to contribute to environmental initiatives, meaning that banana workers can adopt more sustainable farm practices such as carbon capture, reduced water usage, improved biodiversity and enhanced soil health.

In 2024, it had sold more Fairtrade bananas and sugar than any other grocery retailer for nine years running.

Tackling climate change through coffee

To support key coffee sourcing regions in tackling climate risks, Sainsbury's is supporting smallholders to invest in different ways of producing coffee that is kinder to the environment and people. Building from Fairtrade's sourcing terms and in partnership with its coffee supplier, Sainsbury's is working on a carbon-focused project to support women and protect the environment in Colombia.

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