PEANUTS

UK supermarket’s first Fairtrade peanuts were launched in April in Co-op stores across the UK.

Twin Trading is working with peanut producers in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Nicaragua. Nuts for the launch of The Co-op product were sourced from peanut (groundnut) growers in Malawi, southern Africa, via NASFAM, the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi. NASFAM acts as an ‘umbrella’ organisation for smallholder farmer associations and has a total membership of more than 100,000 smallholder farmers.

Landlocked Malawi is one of the world’s least developed countries; 90% of livelihoods are dependent on agriculture and 60% of all farmers live below the poverty line. The launch of the Fairtrade product comes at a vital time for the Malawian growers where production has been badly hit by the recent devastating droughts in Southern Africa.

NASFAM’s CEO, Dyborn Chibonga, says: “Fairtrade has given smallholder groundnut farmers in Mchinji, Malawi, opportunities to improve their livelihoods and take part in the economic life of the country by selling directly into the European snack market.”