Christian Aid - Change the Rules

The material that follows has been provided by ChristianAid

Change the Rules Campaign

THE GLOBAL SUPERMARKET: Britain's biggest shops and food from the Third World

REPORT SUMMARY

The major supermarkets dominate the British retail food market. An increasing number of the products they sell are from developing countries. Selling food for export provides an important source of revenue, but working conditions and the share of the price going to producers are often poor.

Christian Aid investigators traced a range of own-brand foods from our supermarket shelves to the farms and plantations where they are produced overseas. Punishing working conditions, pesticide abuses, low wages and discrimination were found to be common.

Supermarkets could guarantee better conditions for people producing their own-brand products. As major economic players they have the money, muscle and mechanisms to do it. Already other big businesses have taken positive measures showing it can be done.

Christian Aid is calling on supermarkets to adopt a code of conduct guaranteeing decent minimum standards by the year 2000 and to provide for independent monitoring.

Key Facts

"When we arise in the morning... at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese, or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world"

Martin Luther King

The top ten British supermarkets have an annual turnover equal to the income of the world's poorest 35 countries.

Over a quarter of our imported food and drink comes from third world countries. Between 1970 and 1994 food exports from the developing world increased over seven-fold - from $16 billion to $117 billion.

There are nearly 1.1 billion workers in agricultural production worldwide. Nearly half are in wage labour.

Sainsbury uses 6,000 suppliers around the world and Tesco sources from over 60 countries worldwide.

The average family spends £50 per week on food, adding up to a huge £43 billion spent per year.

Of all food bought 85 per cent is purchased in supermarkets

There are 30 different supermarkets. The top ten chains have 4,621 stores and control 64 per cent of supermarket business.

CASE STUDIES

Christian Aid's research revealed a wide range of unacceptable conditions among workers producing food for British consumption:

degrading and dangerous working conditions
random sacking
pesticide abuse
violence
discrimination
low pay

Asparagus from Peru

Workers suffer low pay, job insecurity, poor respect of basic rights and blacklisting if they complain

Coffee from Brazil

Harassment and blacklisting of trade union members coupled with insecure seasonal employment make life hard for plantation workers

Grapes from Brazil

Women workers face exposure to hazardous chemicals, bullying and harassment; there is a lack of safe drinking water, and dangerous work transport

Pineapples from the Dominican Republic

Low pay, harsh working conditions, poor health care and exposure to pesticides are common

Fruit from South Africa

Conditions for workers in the deciduous- fruit industry (apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums and grapes) range from the most progressive to some of the worst remnants of apartheid. Low salaries, unfair dismissal, housing problems and oposition to unions are everyday issues

Prawns from Thailand

Production leads to environmental damage, contaminated drinking water and threatened livelihoods for small fishing communities

What Christian Aid Wants

Christian Aid wants to help establish a Supermarket Charter for the Third World. It wants all major supermarkets to:

Adopt a set of ethical principles for their Third World purchasing;
Implement a code of conduct for all overseas suppliers of own-brand products by the year 2000;
Agree to independent monitoring of adherence to the code.

Over 20,000 Christian Aid active campaigners will be backing the Change the Rules campaign by putting pressure on their local supermarkets. Many more supporters will be handing over their till receipts with messages to supermarket managers to give a better deal to Third World producers.

Can the supermarkets afford it?

Supermarket Daily pre tax profit 1995-96

J Sainsbury PLC £1.95 million
Tesco PLC £1.84 million
Argyll Group (inc Safeway, Presto) £1.17 million
Asda Group PLC £0.85 million

The average fruit farm worker in South Africa or pineapple worker in the Dominican Republic would take over 15 centuries to earn the annual salary of Sir Ian MacLaurin, Tesco's Chief Executive

For media copies of the report or for interviews call Christian Aid's press office on 0171 620 0713 (direct) or via the switchboard on 0171 620 4444.

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