Bananas are arguably Fairtrade’s most well-known and beloved product. 20 years since they were launched they have become a symbol of British consumer power. In a bid to make bananas fair, Fairtrade has campaigned for farmers’ and workers’ rights and gained a third of the UK market. And our new report Fairer Fruit: Fairtrade’s Impact in the Banana Industry (pdf) shows this has made a significant difference to the lives of 22,000 banana farmers and workers across the world, who have begun to take back control in an industry in which low incomes and poor conditions continue to dominate.
Fairtrade works in communities which have been at the sharp end of this, where farmers have been exploited by unjust traders and forced to sell off their land because they couldn’t make ends meet. Leonidas Jimenez Chaparro, a farmer from Colombia, explains: “Basically we were on our way to selling our farms due to the low price paid for each box (of bananas) because the income didn’t even cover the costs of production.”
Not only do the Fairtrade Standards help to improve farm productivity - for example through environmental sustainability and resilience to climate change - but thanks to the safety net of a set Minimum Price and additional services through the Premium, Leonidas was able to keep his farm and his livelihood.
As a member of Fairtrade co-operative Banafrucoop, Leonidas also has greater influencing power to liaise directly with buyers. “Before Fairtrade we used to load a truck with our boxes and feel sad thinking about the low price we were getting. The trader was making the most profit out of it. The small producer or banana farmer was considered a ruined person. Nowadays we feel valued, respected.” Thanks to additional training and strength in numbers, Leonidas now has a stronger voice. He says: “Fairtrade has trained us, now we know the real price of a box and that allows us to negotiate.” On average, farmers in Colombia receive 31 days of training every year, covering everything from business skills to environmental sustainability.
Fairtrade enables farmers and workers to become more resilient to fluctuating prices and natural disasters, and benefit from increased incomes and improved wellbeing thanks to extra investments such as new irrigation systems and emergency funds to insure against flooding, drought or wind damage. As a result, the report finds that in Colombia, 96% of Fairtrade banana smallholders reported that their economic situation had improved whilst 98% of workers felt a sense of job security compared to 9% on non-Fairtrade plantations.
In Ecuador and the Dominican Republic the Fairtrade Minimum Price was found to bring stability to people’s incomes and improved living standards, particularly as Premium funds had given people access to loans and credit during hard times, as well as community development.
Workers on Fairtrade plantations in Colombia and the Dominican Republic also felt a stronger sense of ownership of the organisation, reporting higher membership of committees than in non-Fairtrade plantations, which gives them decision-making responsibility and greater leadership skills. They attribute this to greater understanding of Fairtrade’s rigorous Standards, which include policies on grievance procedures, and protection of workers’ rights on collective bargaining and negotiation of wages. Further training projects to empower workers in Ghana have encouraged greater communication between employers and trade unions by focusing on wider remuneration and employment benefits.
The importance of having a permanent contract, with health insurance, leave entitlement and most importantly, job security, should not be underestimated in the banana industry. Research shows that in Colombia all workers on Fairtrade plantations have employment contracts compared with 16% on non-Fairtrade. In Peru, because banana co-operatives are no longer subcontracting the packing of their fruit, this has given greater rights to the majority of local workers through permanent contracts.
Finally, the Fairtrade Premium makes a huge difference to communities, as well as individual farmers and workers alike. In 2013-14, in addition to the Minimum Price, global sales of bananas generated €19.1m (£15m) in Premium to support businesses and social community development.
In a recent article, I described how this had improved the health and nutrition of poor communities in the Dominican Republic, a country which also benefitted from a scholarship programme supporting 80 young employees to work and study at the same time. Meanwhile, further investments in education and training by other co-operatives have seen women in Ghana trained in traditional batik fabric printing, giving workers an additional income, whilst in Colombia 68% of households received at least one scholarship.
So to protect the farmers, workers and communities who have benefitted from Fairtrade over the past 20 years, we must maintain the market share of bananas in the UK. And at the same time, we will continue to advocate and drive industry change to push for living incomes for all.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
