"We're outraged," said Mireya Rodriguez, who met with company buyers and technicians only last month in Leeds to discuss measures to improve wages and working conditions for the plantation workers she represents in Costa Rica. "I really thought they'd understood the link between their price wars and our working lives, but it seems it went in one ear and straight out the other! Another big price cut like this is bound to affect us."

"Our fear", said Alistair Smith of Banana Link, "is that, even if Asda reassures us that the cut is all coming out of their margins, what will their biggest competitor Tesco do?  Will they try and screw their suppliers even harder as they've done in the past? And how will Asda deliver improved conditions for plantation workers on the back of such a low price? The success of Fairtrade bananas shows that British consumers do not want workers in producer countries paying the cost of cheap food."

Listen to Mireya speak about the impact of supermarket buying power in a podcast from the recent public forum "Supersized Supermarkets" organized by Action Aid, Friends of the Earth, Tescopoly and War on Want.