On Saturday September 21st, members of Wellspring Church in Wirksworth constructed what they believe to be the biggest Fairtrade banana split the town has ever seen. At four metres long, it was assembled in two two-metre lengths of plastic guttering, joined together and lined with silver foil, and laid out on three tables joined end to end. The church invited the whole community to come and witness the spectacle and enjoy a portion of the gigantic split. It was devoured within minutes of completion!
The occasion was the 10th anniversary celebration of the merging of the Methodist and Baptist churches in Wirksworth to form a new church, Wellspring. The birthday fell within Fairtrade Fortnight and another anniversary – thirty years of Fairtrade in the UK.
The church’s aim was to draw attention to the fact that despite the success of Fairtrade over the last thirty years, only one in three bananas consumed in the UK is a Fairtrade banana. Bananas are the most popular fruit in the UK, with most of us eating 100 every year. We import bananas from Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador, where banana production by multinational companies has been linked to human rights violations. Despite putting in long hours, workers are often paid at derisory rates that do not cover basic needs such as food, clothing or education.
The ingredients for Wellspring’s big banana split were donated by the Central Co-op’s Northern Membership and Community Council. Bananas sold via Fairtrade are guaranteed a minimum price, plus a Fairtrade Premium on top of that. In 2023, the total estimated Fairtrade Premium generated for banana workers by Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, and Co-op (all of which sell only Fairtrade bananas) was £7.3 million.
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