The Co-operative supermarket chain, once the UK’s biggest retailer of Fairtrade-branded products, plans to switch all its own-brand teas to Fairtrade and to stop selling eggs from caged hens as it tries to reclaim its position as the country’s leading ethical supermarket chain. The Co-op began stocking Fairtrade food products a decade ago. British sales of Fairtrade goods are now running at about £400m annually, up from £290m in 2006, and competitors such as Marks and Spencer, Tesco and J Sainsbury now equal or surpass the Co-op in Fairtrade sales.