Every week 32 million of us shop in British supermarkets. But as supermarkets continue to push for lower prices and higher profits – who is paying the cost?

Rarely is it supermarkets. Instead all too often it is passed down the supply chain to the workers at the bottom. They end up poorly paid and easily exploited.

Three-quarters of the food we buy is purchased in supermarkets. This gives supermarkets tremendous power. The pressure on suppliers to deliver more for less is passed on to workers in the form of low wages, job insecurity and poor working conditions. It is women in particular who find that their already disadvantaged position in the labour market makes them vulnerable to attempts by suppliers to drive down pay and conditions.

"We are paying for the price wars between supermarkets in your country." Costa Rican banana supplier to UK supermarkets.

What can be done?

ActionAid has been campaigning since 2005 to make UK supermarkets play fair overseas.

We’ve had an amazing response to the campaign from over 42,000 ActionAid supporters. Together we’ve already convinced the Competition Commission to reommend that an independent supermarket watchdog be set up so our supermarkets don’t abuse their power overseas.

Our campaign is at a critical stage. Supermarkets are negotiating with the Competition Commission about the watchdog right now. We’re worried they will try to stop it being set up at all and workers in developing countries will continue to get a bad deal.

We want Tesco, as the UK’s biggest supermarket, to lead the way. But they are currently refusing to sign up. In September, they announced record half year profits of £1.45 billion. We need to show them how little it costs to be ethical, and how much people like you want them to do it!

photo : ©Antonio Olmos/ActionAid