AN angry shopper has labelled supermarket giant Tesco "unethical" after it decided to discontinue selling Fairtrade bananas at a local store.

Bridie Stringer, of Upton Grey, said she was outraged to discover the fruit was no longer available at Tesco, in Station Road, Hook.

What irritated the 55-year-old more was the products had been removed during "Fairtrade Fortnight" - an annual awareness campaign to promote goods that have been fairly traded in Third World countries.

Mrs Stringer said: "One of the ways of making poverty history is by buying fairly-traded goods which do not exploit the producers.

"Bananas are big business. However, shoppers in Hook are no longer able to make an ethical decision to support growers who are paid a social premium to help develop their communities. Tesco has removed that choice."

Mrs Stringer is now urging other local shoppers in the area to have their say and to help campaign to bring the bananas back. She said customers could use the store comment box or ask managers.

A spokeswoman for Tesco said the company had not acted unethically, but had removed the fruit because of limitations on space.

She said: "The superstore in Hook is not one of our largest and there is only so much we can stock. The Fairtrade bananas didn't sell very well, resulting in a large amount of waste. It was therefore decided to remove them.

"We aim to provide customers with the widest choice of items. Unfortunately, there are limitations which means this is not always the case."

She invited Mrs Stringer to meet the store manager at Hook to discuss a solution.