Waitrose Shoppers go bananas for Britain’s favourite fruit

St Lucia bananas are returning to UK supermarket shelves after a catastrophic hurricane wiped out the island’s entire crop.

Waitrose is launching Fairtrade St Lucia-labelled packs of the fruit at all its stores from this month in a move that will help the Caribbean island’s struggling farmers get back on their feet.

Bananas are the supermarket’s most popular product, topping its basket league as the biggest seller by volume week after week.

Waitrose has 75 dedicated Fairtrade growers in St Lucia and accounts for nearly a third of the island’s total banana production.

The devastating Hurricane Tomas struck the island last October and wiped out 100% of St Lucia's bananas, its number one export. Worried shoppers later wrote to Waitrose asking why the St Lucian fruit had disappeared from stores.

The supermarket’s banana buyer Alistair Swan said: “Getting St Lucia-labelled bananas into all our stores after the hurricane is our way of supporting the island’s farmers who have steadfastly stood by Waitrose for 50 years, and of satisfying customer demand.”

Waitrose has sourced bananas from St Lucia for the past five decades and expects to sell a quarter of a million individual Fairtrade St Lucia bananas per week after their in-store comeback this month.

Bananas take around nine months to plant, grow and harvest, meaning the first post-hurricane crops are only just ready to sell.

Winfresh, the sole exporter of St Lucia bananas to the UK, said the deadly Hurricane Tomas had wreaked havoc on the holiday island’s key industry.

Banana plants were completely destroyed, leaving many devastated farmers and their families with little to survive on for many months.

Roy Hugh, Winfresh sales and marketing director, explained: “The rain washed away roads and plants, it was the worst hurricane for St Lucia since 1938.

“The ground was completely water-logged and the bananas effectively drowned. So the banana farmers have had to dig in with all their resolve, and Waitrose’ support has been key because it gave them a goal to aim towards.”

Waitrose was the first UK national supermarket to sell 100% Fairtrade bananas in all its branches.