Compagnie Fruitiere (UK) Ltd will receive its first Fairtrade pineapples from Ghana this weekend in collaboration with JP Fruit Distributors Ltd.

The fruit will sail into Portsmouth after an 11-12 day journey from West Africa by Compagnie Fruitiere’s sister company, Africa Express Line Ltd, as the latest dimension to the rapidly expanding Fairtrade portfolio available to UK retailers.

Initially the medium-sized Ghanaian pineapples will be Smooth Cayenne, and Compagnie Fruitiere is expecting further developments of MD2 this year.

Business development manager Anna Gould told the Journal: “Fairtrade production complements our large-scale Ghanaian pineapple production and allows the smaller independent grower to establish a profitable business. It also ensures more investment in the local community.

“We are so pleased to be able to add this to our company product portfolio.

“Fairtrade is an extremely important marque as it aims to give a fair return to the grower, and in our experience that’s exactly what it does.

“Recent figures suggest that UK consumers are buying into this important new sector of the fresh produce industry, which is very positive for the whole supply chain,” she said.

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