The banana is, unsurprisingly, Britain’s favourite fruit. Filled with nutrients and conveniently packaged in its own protective wrapper, bananas are nature’s perfect power snack. We eat over 5bn bananas a year, and according to Kantar analyists, 41% are eaten for health reasons.
Given their popularity, of all products that one could choose to farm, surely bananas must be one of the most appealing? Unlike seasonal crops, bananas can be grown throughout the year and therefore can provide a regular source of income, a guaranteed market for years to come, and they are also a healthy food crop for the whole family to enjoy. When I first started working for Fairtrade, I believed that banana farming would offer small-scale farmers a viable means for improving their livelihoods. And though this is the case for many, the reality is very different for communities in the Dominican Republic, the region’s largest banana exporter.
When I recently travelled to Monte Cristi, one of the three main banana-producing regions in the country, I saw for myself just how difficult life is for the people there who are trying to make a living from bananas. The region is one of the poorest and most marginalised areas of the country. Fortunately, it is home to Banelino, a smallholder banana cooperative that became Fairtrade-certified in 1996, and since then, has delivered a number of projects in the local community funded by the Fairtrade Premium.
And as we prepare to launch a campaign next week for Fairtrade Fortnight highlighting the food insecurity faced by millions of farmers worldwide, one project with local school children is improving their education simply by providing breakfasts and lunches. Susana Rodriguez, the Banelino project coordinator explained that breakfast and lunch for the children who attended the local Conani school are helping them to concentrate during lessons. When I asked her what the children would eat if the premium didn’t fund this project she replied, “Nothing. Many of the families are too poor to afford a meal at the start of the day.”
I have seen schools funded by Fairtrade premiums before, but this stark revelation made me really understand the difference these projects make. I had always pictured the premium funding extra schools, additional clinics, more doctors … it had not occurred to me that in many cases, without the premium , basic services that growing up in the UK I have always taken for granted, would simply not exist. That is why it is so important that producer organisations are empowered to decide how to spend premium funds, which are an additional sum to Fairtrade’s minimum price which gives farmers a safety net. Banelino has used these funds to implement two important interventions to improve the health of local children.
In 2013, Banelino worked with Timmy Global Health to carry out a health assessment of the children in the Monte Cristi region. The study found that 70% of the children in the region were suffering from undernourishment. Furthermore, it revealed that many of the children had illnesses such as diabetes and anaemia, which can weaken immune systems making them more vulnerable to contracting other illnesses. As a result Banelino set up a school allotment programme in seven of the schools in the region, improving the food security for local families.
Secondly, a comprehensive health programme has been established, which offers local farmers and workers an opportunity to see medics at a mobile health clinic based in community buildings such as churches and schools as the community are not used to attending formal clinics. This programme now treats an average of 10,000 people each year.
As a result of the ongoing banana price war in the UK, it is now very difficult for anyone in the banana business to make a significant profit. Retailers continue to sell loose bananas for 68p per kg (taking a loss), in order to drive consumers through their stores. This gives us a false sense of the real cost of producing our food, and the impact on those who are dependent on these supply chains for their livelihoods. We all love a bargain but it makes me wonder if in our pursuit of the best price for a product we have become divorced from its true value. Whilst the cost of production for bananas has gone up for farmers, in the UK we pay significantly less for the fruit than we did in 2002 when we paid £1.08/kg.
Fairtrade protects those who are most vulnerable to the effects of this price war by paying a minimum price that covers production costs, as well as those essential premiums which can be invested back into their business, or into fundamental wider-community services. Fairtrade is the only certification scheme which builds this investment into its core costs and through this mechanism UK sales in 2015 alone generated £8.6m back to banana farmers, workers and their communities.
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