Tate & Lyle go Fairtrade February 24th, 2008

Good on Tate & Lyle for adopting the Fairtrade label on all its retail sugar in the UK. The move will see the Fairtrade sugar sector rise to over £80m by the end of 2009. The executive director of Fairtrade, Harriet Lamb, sees the move as tremendous and reports that this is the largest ever switch to Fairtrade by a UK company.

Tate & Lyle will also pay a premium, estimated at £2m, to the sugar-growers in order to fund projects in local schools and health clinics. Whilst no doubt increasing costs to Tate & Lyle in the short term, the increasing push to encourage Fairtrade and organic is sure to benefit the company in the long term.