Some of those who pluck roses in stifling greenhouses in Kenya for outlets including Sainsbury’s and the Co-op receive just £96 a month.
This is far below a living wage for the region, estimated to be £162 a month in a report commissioned in 2016 by Fairtrade.
The Fairtrade Foundation, which campaigns against exploitation of growers, launched an investigation of its own after being presented with The Mail on Sunday’s findings.
According to the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union, the lowest-paid workers at Oserian, a farm certified by Fairtrade, receive a starting salary of 10,746 Kenyan shillings (£80) a month. When housing allowance is added, it comes to 13,000 Kenyan shillings (£96).
Oserian has been getting the short end of the media stick recently. In addition to the Daily Mail piece, press agency Deutsche Welle featured a video in which tilapia fishers accuse flower farms of polluting Lake Naivasha. In the video, Oserian denies the claims, pointing instead to the fertilizer use by local potato farmers.