THE Co-op, which has stores in Amesbury, Downton, Fordingbridge, Durrington and Mere, has switched all of its instant and ground coffee to Fairtrade.

And it is calling on the multinationals to launch their own Fairtrade coffee.

Co-op's conversion will boost the value of the UK Fairtrade coffee market by 15 per cent or £4m, returning £750,000 to growers.

Under Fairtrade, coffee growers get a fair price, currently double or triple the global market price.

The Co-op is encouraging customers in-store and through a Roast your Roaster section on its website (www.co-op.co.uk/fairtrade) to demand that the manufacturers of their favourite brands launch at least one Fairtrade line.

The move follows Oxfam's revelation that, with global coffee prices at their lowest in real terms for 100 years, 25 million growers are facing starvation because their labour no longer provides a living.

Adrian Lovett, Oxfam's director of campaigns and communications, said: "What the Co-op has done is fantastic.

"If the big coffee companies showed this kind of commitment then millions of growers across the world would be able to feed their families and send their children to school."

Malcolm Hepworth, chief operating officer, Co-operative Retail, said: "The coffee crisis is complex and Fairtrade is only part of the solution, but it's the simplest way we can make a real and immediate difference - immediate, because all consumers have to do is buy Fairtrade and real, because growers will get much more for their coffee."