Sainsbury's Backs Fairtrade to Secure Ethical Supply Chains

For more than 20 years, Sainsbury’s teams up with Fairtrade to make sure the goods on its shelves come from supply chains that treat workers and the environment with care.

From bananas and tea to coffee and nuts, the retailer integrates Fairtrade standards into its sourcing to reduce poverty, support better labour practices and tackle climate change where raw materials are produced.

Sainsbury’s isn’t just ticking boxes; the supermarket puts itself at the heart of Fairtrade’s work in the UK. As one of Fairtrade’s biggest retail partners, it sells a wide range of certified products and pays out more in Fairtrade Premium than any other UK retailer.

That extra money goes straight to the farmers and workers who grow and harvest the food – and they decide how to spend it. Ultimately, this long-term approach helps communities plan for the future.

Committing to tea growers’ livelihoods

All of Sainsbury’s black tea now carries the Fairtrade mark. This means the retailer agrees to pay a minimum price for the tea it buys, protecting farmers from drops in the market and making sure they can cover the cost of sustainable production.

Tea farmers also receive a Fairtrade Premium, an additional sum that goes into a communal fund to invest in their communities.

This step puts Sainsbury’s on track to become the UK’s biggest Fairtrade tea retailer, which is important for workers in places like Kenya, where tea is grown in regions facing pressure from climate change. Environmental issues such as soil degradation, lack of water and loss of biodiversity are combined with social risks like gender-based violence, harassment and poor working conditions.

The Fairtrade model allows Sainsbury’s to address these risks directly. The amount of Premium expected to be paid out to tea farmers and workers is set to top £1m, or around US$1.3m, every year. That money funds projects such as clinics, clean water access and education – all chosen by the farmers themselves.

In fact, Sainsbury’s sees Fairtrade not just as a certification scheme but as a route to stable, resilient supply chains. The supermarket works with Fairtrade and its producers to identify environmental and human rights risks and to plan for long-term improvements.

Building long-term supply chain resilience

To strengthen its global sourcing networks, Sainsbury’s backs Fairtrade’s Resilience Building Initiative (RBI). This approach brings together producers of tea, coffee and bananas from different countries to share insights and support each other.

It gives Sainsbury’s a clearer picture of the risks on the ground – from climate threats to labour exploitation – and helps suppliers make the changes needed to stay sustainable. The initiative includes support for living wages, long-term contracts and access to investment.

For banana growers, the retailer’s commitment goes further. In 2023, it joined eight other supermarkets in agreeing to help plantation workers earn a living wage by 2027, but Sainsbury’s has achieved this early meeting its share of that target three years ahead of schedule.

It does this by working with Fairtrade and its supplier Fyffes to pay a tailored contribution on every banana it buys. That money goes into workers’ Fairtrade Premium Committees, which decide how to distribute it, often as direct bonuses.

Sainsbury’s also locks in longer-term contracts with suppliers to give them financial security and the space to invest in their farms. That might include projects like reducing carbon, managing water better or protecting biodiversity.

Over the past nine years, Sainsbury’s has sold more Fairtrade bananas and sugar than any other UK grocer. Since 2000, banana producers alone have earned around £75m – about US$93m – through sales to Sainsbury’s.

From coffee to clean water: Investing where it counts

Fairtrade doesn’t only affect income – it transforms daily life.

In Malawi, tea farmers at the Sukambizi Association Trust used Fairtrade Premium funds to install a 35km water pipeline, bringing clean water to more than 40 villages. Before this, families collected water from unsafe rivers; now, children are able to go to school regularly and fewer adults fall ill.

In Colombia, Sainsbury’s coffee supply chain supports smallholder farmers and especially women to grow coffee in ways that reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment. This project reflects how Fairtrade’s structure supports specific local challenges with tailored solutions.

Sainsbury’s also backs more than 130 producer organisations in 29 countries, reaching tens of thousands of farmers and workers. These partnerships are central to how it plans to keep shelves stocked while making sure supply chains are ethical, fair and sustainable.

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