Worrying news for purveyors of organic products and fair-trade bananas. According to a report wealthier shoppers are being forced to consider cutting back on expensive organic and fair-trade food, as the credit crunch and higher food prices begin to take their toll on household finances. Some have already done so.

Already it is being reported that middle-class shoopers are beginning to swap high-cost Waitrose and M&S for the less obvious charms of Lidl, Aldi, and Netto. Sales growth in these bulk/ low cost retailers is reportedly up 13% in the first three months of the year alone. The class stigma once attached to shopping in these stores has been decisively eroded - through necessity if nothing else.

Higher-end consumers are now facing a stark choice, according to Joel Segal, head of consumer products at Ernst & Young: ‘Either they stick to their principles, or they may decide that they can live without fair trade or organic food in order to avoid cutting back in other areas.’