Banana Farmers Trapped in Poverty by Britain's Supermarket Price Wars

Britain's supermarket price wars are trapping tens of thousands of banana farmers and workers in an "unrelenting cycle of poverty".

According to the Fairtrade Foundation, in the past 10 years the UK supermarket sector has almost halved the shelf price of loose bananas while the cost of producing them has doubled.

UK consumers now typically pay 11p for a loose banana compared with 18p a decade ago, while a loose apple grown in the UK now costs 20p.

But living costs for banana farmers and workers in the three countries that provide 70% of the UK's bananas - Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador - have rocketed by 85%, 350% and 240% respectively.