Text entered

Tesco statement: Zimbabwe

Tesco

1 July 2008

The amount of produce Tesco sources from Zimbabwe – worth around £1 million per year – is insignificant in terms of global trade and influence. However, in the current circumstances, we have decided to stop sourcing any products from Zimbabwe as long as the political crisis persists in that country.
This is a difficult decision to take. We have to date sought to balance wider political considerations against a desire to support our suppliers in Zimbabwe and enable them to support the workers who depend on that trade for their livelihoods.
However, we cannot ignore the escalating political crisis in Zimbabwe, and the growing consensus in the international community - including from UK politicians on all sides - that further action must be taken to maximise the pressure for change.
In these circumstances, we think the right decision is to stop sourcing products from Zimbabwe until there is an end to the current political crisis. We also attach a very high priority to ensuring that this decision does least harm to the workers and their dependents who have supplied us from Zimbabwe. We cannot continue to support them through trade, but are urgently finding ways to support them by other means.
We will keep this situation under review. Our aim is to re-engage with our suppliers and their workers once stability, and an internationally-recognised regime, have returned to the country.