9th August 2010, Banana Link

The Standard Fruit Company and the SUTRASFCO union, after some 20 meetings in recent months, have signed a historic agreement that brings to an end the controversy over the restructuring of the Dole operation in the Aguan Valley of Northern Honduras. The agreement was signed on 5th August in the presence of Labour Minister, Felícito Avila, at a ceremony in Tegucigalpa.

3rd August 2010, BBC

An adjudicator to resolve disputes between supermarkets and their suppliers is to be established under plans announced by the government.  The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) will sit within the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), but will be independent, the government said.  It will investigate complaints from UK and overseas suppliers about the way they are treated by supermarkets.  But retailers argue that shoppers will end up paying for the new body.

The move follows a recommendation from the Competition Commission in 2008.  Following a long-running investigation into the grocery market, it argued that the power of the large supermarkets was having an adverse impact on suppliers and consumers.

The government hopes to have set up the GCA within the next 18 months to two years, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills told the BBC.

30th July 2010, Banana Link

Over two years after Guatemalan and US trade unions filed the very first complaint under the terms of the Free Trade Agreement between the USA and Central America/Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) over systematic violations of labour laws in Guatemala, the United States government has concluded that "the Government is failing to meet its obligations" to effectively enforce its own laws on the freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and acceptable conditions of work. The US Trade Representative also noted that "the issue of labour-related violence is a matter of serious concern". If, after 90 days of talks between the governments, satisfactory remedial actions are not agreed, the US could impose fines of up to US $15 million per year. This money would go into a fund to finance initiatives to improve the enforcement of labour standards.

26th July 2010, Valverde; Banana Link

The Dominican Republic is set to overtake Cameroon as the ACP group's largest banana exporter. In the second quarter of this year, the Caribbean nation exported almost twice the volume exported from Cameroon. Producers' association Adobanano predicts that in 2010 the country's exports will exceed 300,000 tonnes for the first time.

25th July 2010, La Ceiba, Honduras; Banana Link

Negotiations between Dole's Honduran subsidiary and trade union SUTRASFCO finally concluded in La Ceiba with a deal that will limit the damage of the company's original threat to close down a large group of plantations.

16th June 2010, Brussels; ITUC

Honduras is immersed in a very worrying spiral of violence, and the international trade union movement remains on the alert for human rights violations. Being a trade unionist or part of the Resistance Front implies major risks in the Honduras of today. Various trade union and community leaders have faced death threats and attempts on their lives over recent weeks.

13th June 2010, Morales, Guatemala; Banana Link

Just as thousands of banana workers and their families were beginning to recover from the devastation of hurricane-force winds and Tropical Storm Agatha, the river Motagua again burst its banks in the early hours of the morning of Saturday 12th June.

Workers had reoccupied their homes and were in the process of cleaning up and retrieving whatever belongings had not been destroyed by the first floods, when an alert came to evacuate their houses again. The whole of the Yuma plantation and parts of the Choctaw and Chickasaw plantations were flooded again as workers sought emergency refuge in El Cedro village.

9th June 2010, Geneva, Banana Link
 
Costa Rica is once again charged by workers' organisations as well as some governments and employers at this year's 99th International Labour Conference in Geneva, of being in systematic violation of core international labour standards. In an intervention on behalf of the British Trades Union Congress, the AFL-CIO of the USA and other European trade unions, the British workers' representative pointed out how the Costa Rican government has proved highly resistant to the repeated requests from the ILO to supply more information about the action it is taking to:

• Bring its law into compliance with core ILO conventions, and in the case of this latest report, specifically with Convention 98;
• Inform the ILO and others how the justice system is changing to speed up the processing of legal cases brought by trade unionists and workers for unfair dismissal;
• Demonstrate how policies such as the fostering of non-union ‘direct settlements’ and the so called `solidarismo’ system is not directly undermining real trade unions.

3rd June 2010, Banana Link

[Right: Maria del Rosario Ramirez who works at the Chicksaw packhouse, standing amidst flood damage.]

Despite the very considerable damage done to its plantations, Bandegua, the Guatemalan subsidiary of Fresh Del Monte, has told the trade union SITRABI that it will not abandon production in Izabal.

Early reports suggest that at least one quarter of Guatemalan banana exports have been damaged by three natural phenomena in the last week or so: the ash from the eruption of Pacaya, hurricane-force winds in Izabal, then Tropical Storm Agatha.  It is estimated that 50% of Pacific coast banana plantations are lost.

31st May 2010, Morales, Izabal, Banana Link

Guatemala was already in an official "State of Calamity" following the eruption late last week of the Pacaya Volcano. Anibal Archila, a journalist well-known to social organisations was killed in the eruption and there was substantial material damage. Then, this weekend, Tropical Storm Agatha and its intense rains have caused rivers in Izabal, the Pacific coastal region and along the border with El Salvador to burst their banks. Over 90 people have been killed, 54 are missing and 59 injured. Some 110,000 people are reported still to be at risk.

25th May 2010, Banana Link Press Release

Yet again the leading British supermarkets are making plantation workers in Latin America bear the cost of slashing fruit prices in this country. Pineapples are now being sold for as little as 50p according to a report by leading trade magazine The Grocer. This is one third less than was being charged last year. As the price wars pursued in bananas have shown, low prices here have a high cost for workers and their communities in producer countries such as Costa Rica, including poverty wages and environmental devastation.

24th May 2010

Just a few weeks after announcing that violence had been averted at the Palo Alto oilpalm plantation in Northern Colombia, Francisco Antonio Abello was assassinated on 17th May. He was one of the 185 workers who led the strike movement at the beginning of the year that resulted in the recognition of the SINTRAINAGRO union and an agreement with the company. The company had threatened to respond to the industrial action with violence at the time, but the trade union movement had appealed to the authorities to ensure that workers were allowed to continue their legitimate protest in peace. However, this had not succeeded in stopping the threats, which were finally carried out.

24th May 2010, Banana Link

The Standard Fruit Company of Honduras, subsidiary of the world's leading fruit company, has now proposed to reduce the number of job losses in the Coyoles Central district. This will still have a very serious impact on the local economy, but is less than the 2300 initially rumoured to be under the axe.

24th May 2010, AAI

In March 2009, The Abuse of Supermarket Buyer Power in the EU Food Retail Sector: Preliminary Survey of Evidence was submitted to the European Parliament. The report provided preliminary evidence, gathered across 27 EU Member States, of unfair or abusive practices by supermarkets, primarily through the exercise of buyer power, against food suppliers. It also commented on the ways in which supermarket buyer power is reinforced by the rise of private label goods and buying alliances, and it considered the impacts of supermarket conduct on independent wholesalers and retailers.

12th May 2010, Banana Link

The establishment of the National Fair Trade Commission (CNCE) under the aegis of the Economics and Sustainable Development Ministries is the first move by a national government to become involved in regulating fair trade. Its key mission is to "make the information provided to the public clearer". It will also be a "body for exchange and information that will work to promote fair trade to consumers, local authorities and companies". The main fair trade organisations in France also participate in the Commission.

20th April, Banana Link

After a meeting between Standard Fruit and the SUTRASFCO union yesterday, in the presence of Honduran Labour Ministry officials, it has emerged that the company is prepared to explore options not to close the thirteen plantations in Coyoles Central that it had said earlier this month it would have to close. Standard Fruit has promised the union that it will put a restructuring proposal on the table by 3rd May. However, it is clear that the union will be under pressure to make concessions and to accept flexibility over some clauses of the collective bargaining agreement with Standard.

Source: La Prensa, Honduras

19th April 2010, Banana Link

Standard Fruit, the Dole subsidiary that has operated in Honduras since the beginning of the 20th century, has announced that it is closing down thirteen of its banana plantations in Coyoles Central in the Aguan valley in Northern Honduras. SUTRASFCO, the trade union that represents the Standard Fruit workers and has a collective agereement with the company, alleges that the company is making 2,500 of their members redundant and replacing them with non-union workers as a way of reducing costs and breaking the union. In the company's statement to the press, it noted that it is cheaper to produce in Guatemala at "no social cost".  Honduras is the only country in which there is a union and collective bargaining on Dole plantations.

14th April 2010, Banana Link

In the film BANANAS!*, twelve Nicaraguan banana plantation workers are suing Dole for concealing the dangers of a pesticide that they claim made them sterile.

For more information about the use of Nemagon, the film itself and Dole's response to it please visit the Bananas!* website here .

This controversial film is being shown in London for the first time this week at the ICA.  Visit Facebook for more details of the showings.

Sources: Bananas!* The Movie

7th April 2010, ITUC OnLine

The ITUC joins with the United Trade Union Confederation of Guatemala (CUSG), the General Workers’ Centre of Guatemala (CGTG) and the Workers’ Trade Union of Guatemala (UNSITRAGUA) in condemning in the strongest possible terms the assassinations on 6th and 26th March of Luis Felipe Cho and Samuel Ramírez Paredes.

7th April 2010, Banana Link

An agreement has been reached between Palo Alto Gnecco Espinosa Investments and SINTRAINAGRO, the agricultural workers’ union in Colombia, bringing an end to a 67-day strike at a plantation in Ciénaga district, Magdalena.  The Ministry of Social Protection will act as guarantor of the agreement.  Prior to the deal the company had been operating a hard-line policy of refusing to recognise workers’ rights to free association.  The strike had been initiated in response to the illegal and violent dismissal of 185 out of 200 workers back in January when workers decided to join the trade union.

6th April 2010, Banana Link

The WTO banana deal, agreed in December 2009, was a subject of discussion at the session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly which met last week in Tenerife.  As a result, the Assembly issued a Declaration which first outlines the deal and its impact before setting out ten demands relating to the banana trade.  These demands include enlarging the financial package to ACP and European banana producers to help them adjust to the new trade regime; and a request that EU nations increase their efforts to prevent the import of bananas from countries and exporters with inadequate policies on tax evasion, corruption, labour standards and human rights violations.

25th March 2010, Banana Link

On Wednesday 17th March, the European Commission announced its adoption of a €190 million support package for banana exporters in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.  This comes as part of the historic Agreement on Trade in Bananas which was finalised in Geneva in December 2009.  The Agreement commits the EU to reducing its import tariff on Latin American bananas from €176 to €114 per tonne by 2016, thereby eroding the preferential treatment that the EU has given to ACP banana exporters in recent decades.  Andrís Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development, stated that “These measures will help ACP countries to adapt to the new realities of the banana trade regime.  The Commission has committed itself to fully stand by ACP countries to foster their efficient integration into the world economy while respecting international trade rules.  This package delivers on that commitment.”

18th February 2010, GMB

GMB, in support of banana workers union SITRAP in Costa Rica, is launching a major UK campaign to secure an end to the Pope John XXIII School in the capital San Jose being used to promote the anti-trade union strategies of the employers in Costa Rica’s tropical fruit plantations. This centre was established by the Catholic diocese of San Jose in 1963 and its union busting activities are a relic of the Cold War.

To launch the campaign GMB union activists will stage a demonstration:
11am Tuesday 23rd February 2010
Cathedral Piazza, Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street, London SW1P 1QW

2nd February 2010, Banana Link

On 8th December 2009 at the FAO headquarters in Rome, the World Banana Forum was launched, creating a permanent space of assembly for participants representing the global banana supply-chain.  All 150 participants agreed to set the mission of ‘Working Together for Sustainable Banana Production and Trade’.  As such, the aim of the Forum is to promote open dialogue and inspire collaboration between stakeholders in order to produce pragmatic outcomes for the improvement of the banana industry and to achieve an industry-wide consensus on best practices regarding workplace issues, gender equity, environmental impact, sustainable production and economic issues.

12th January, Banana Link

Farmer leaders in Northern Mindanao yesterday marked the start of Lakbayan, a series of protests in major cities nationwide, by marching with torches.  Lakbayan commemorates the Mendiola massacre in 1987, and protests will continue until 22nd January.

14th January 2010, SINTRAINAGRO, Ciénaga, Magdalena

185 workers at the Palo Alto plantation, belonging to Palo Alto Gnecco Espinosa Investments, in the Ciénaga district of Magdalena province, were evicted from their workplace at gun-point, leaving one of the workers injured.

14th January, Tescopoly

The Government has announced today that it will accept the Competition Commission's recommendation to establish a new supermarket ombudsman to enforce the new supermarket code of practice and protect suppliers from abuses of power by the big retailers.

7th January 2010, El Comercio, Ecuador

Within the last six days, producers in the province of El Oro have received $121,000 for the bunches delivered.  The purchasing system for bunches of bananas that the Government has pursued since 31st December has not convinced many producers in El Oro.  Yesterday, in the Council of El Oro (la Gobernación), no agreement was reached to increase the price.  Representatives of 10 banana producer organizations tried to persuade the authority to be paid between $4 and $5 per bunch. This would help to finance the labour costs for the handling, cutting, washing and transportation of the fruit.

16th Dec, Bridges Weekly Trade News

The European Union and a group of Latin American countries have reached an agreement to end tensions over the EU’s tariffs on banana imports, bringing to a close the longest international trade dispute in memory.

At issue is the EU’s current banana import regime, which allows 775,000 tonnes of the fruit from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries - many of which are former European colonies - to enter the bloc duty-free each year. Meanwhile, Brussels places a €176 per tonne tariff on bananas from all other exporters.

15th December, Banana Link

After decades of dispute, the world’s ‘banana wars’ are finally set to come to an end. An historic deal between the EU, Latin America, African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries and the US was signed at the weekly meeting of the WTO Council Secretariat in Geneva this afternoon, after the last details were agreed yesterday. Trade negotiators cheered and applauded as Eckart Guth, the EU ambassador to the WTO, announced, "So, it's done. Thank you very much". European Trade Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed her relief that the dispute had finally been settled: "I'm very happy to see the longest-running trade dispute finally solved," she said.  "History is being made today because this dispute has soured global trade relations for too long."  The deal signifies a step towards an eventual agreement in the WTO’s Doha Round of trade negotiations which aim to reduce barriers to global trade.

2nd December, Banana Link

Stakeholders in the banana industry are to launch the World Banana Forum on sustainable banana production and trade at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy next week. This meeting is the result of years of previous collaborative work involving representatives from banana industry – civil society organisations, fruit companies, retailers and national governments - as part of the ‘Multi-Stakeholder Forum Project’. This project has been coordinated with support from Banana Link and is implemented by the FAO with co-funding from the Department for International Development (DfID) of the United Kingdom.

2nd November 2009, Banana Link

An independent retailer has decided to take a stand against the banana price wars that have afflicted the UK banana market since September. The savage price cuts were initiated by Asda/WalMart and Aldi. Many growers and plantation workers fear that, despite reassurances from the retailers, the retail price wars will have dire consequences for prices and wages at the beginning of the banana chain.

October 26th 2009, Banana Link

The world's biggest banana exporter has started the process of setting up a state banana exporting company.  In his weekly broadcast to the media, President Rafael Correa said he was fed up with the abuses by companies in the sector who underpay producers and avoid taxes: "The definitive solution is to create a state marketing company and we are already in the process of doing so".

13th October 2009, Banana Link

Thanks to all those who responded to the appeal from Honduran unions, the company offered to negotiate at the end of September over the case of Emelina Vasquez. She was fired in January 2007 after being sexually assaulted by a superviser in the plantation where she worked.

12th October 2009, WINFA Media, Banana Link

Fairtrade supporters, campaigners and consumers last Saturday expressed their continued support for banana farmers in the Windward Islands amidst the great difficulties facing them at present. Over the past year, hundreds of Fairtrade banana farmers from Dominica, St.Vincent and St.Lucia have been forced out of the extra-regional export market for a variety of reasons. These include low returns to farmers and problems with certification to meet British supermarket standards.

7th October 2009, World Decent Work Day, Banana Link

Once again Asda/WalMart has led a round of savage banana price cuts in its UK stores, seemingly regardless of the consequences. Retail prices have come down from 99p at the end of 2008 to 46p per kilo today. The latest salvo in the price wars of Britain's biggest volume food product started in late September with Asda cutting to 57p/kg. This was immediately followed by Tesco, Morrison and Sainsbury, who together account for three quarters of all bananas sold in the country. German discounters Aldi and Lidl went even lower - to 55p/kg - and Lidl followed the big four down again to 46p/kg.

New report released on 7th October 2009, World Day for Decent Work

7th October 2009, Banana Link

In the last three years, since the publication of the 'Dole: Behind the Smoke-Screen' report by a coalition of civil society organisations, the fruit multinational has met on various occasions with trade union organisations in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru. The new report published today, on the World Day for Decent Work, by the same organisations notes that Dole has shown a certain openness to dialogue on the issues of trade union freedom and collective bargaining in those countries.

23rd September 2009, Banana Link

The Sebastopol pineapple company in the Guacimo canton of Costa Rica's Limon Province was obliged to close on 22nd September because it had failed to comply with an order to treat its waste pineapples. The waste residues from pineapple production attract a blood-sucking fly which reproduces prolifically and infests neighbouring cattle farms. The flies suck the blood of cattle causing them to lose up to a kilogram in weight per day.

September 4th, Banana Link

For over a decade, successive Costa Rican governments have been under pressure from repeated recommendations by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to tighten up legislation to ensure that the freedom for workers to join or form trade unions is respected in practice. Earlier this year a package of measures promised by President Arias to the ILO over two years ago was finally presented to the Costa Rican Parliament. The "Trade Union Freedoms" Bill (Draft Law 13475) is scheduled to be voted one way or the other this month. The measures in the draft Bill include:
- easier registration requirements for new trade unions;
- protection against unfair dismissal for private sector workers who join a trade union;
- a reduction in the percentage of (permanent) workers who are union members in any one workplace required to trigger collective bargaining from 50%+1 to 30%.

8th September 2009, Expreso, Guayaquil

After more than 15 years of conflict over the European Union's banana import policies, it seems that the parties may be entering the home straight towards a lasting settlement of the dispute when they meet in Geneva on 17th September.
Following a series of meetings initiated by the Ecuadorian government, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru have agreed to join Ecuador in presenting a united front to the European Union negotiators. According to Ecuador's Deputy Trade Minister, Julio Oleas, these countries have instructed their ambassadors in Geneva to take the same position as Ecuador when negotiations reconvene next week.

20th August 2009, Banana Link

In early 2008, Chiquita announced two new joint ventures to produce and export bananas from Southern Africa: one in Angola, the other in Mozambique. The most advanced of the two projects is in Mozambique's Northern province of Nampula, from where the company this week announced that it will start exporting 50 containers a week to Europe and the Middle East in December 2009. 

19th August 2009, Banana Link

COLSIBA, the Coordinating Body of Latin American Banana and Agro-industrial Workers Unions, held their 10th delegate conference from 4th to 8th August. The conference was hosted by COLSIBA’s newest affiliate, SITAG-Peru, who represent agricultural workers in the banana, mango and sugarcane sectors in Northern Peru.

29 July 2009, www.counterpunch.org

When the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago there might have been a sigh of relief in the corporate board rooms of Chiquita banana.  Earlier this year the Cincinnati-based fruit company joined Dole in criticizing the government in Tegucigalpa which had raised the minimum wage by 60%.  Chiquita complained that the new regulations would cut into company profits, requiring the firm to spend more on costs than in Costa Rica: 20 cents more to produce a crate of pineapple and ten cents more to produce a crate of bananas to be exact.  In all, Chiquita fretted that it would lose millions under Zelaya’s labor reforms since the company produced around 8 million crates of pineapple and 22 million crates of bananas per year.

29 July 2009, Banana Link

Six banana workers who were fired from their jobs in 2001 have won a historic court case against union busting on a Fyfees supplier farm called Maya King. Justice Samuel Awich ruled that when their employer John Zabaneh fired them it was in direct contravention of the Trade Union and Employers Organization’s Recognition and Registration Act. The workers who were employed by Zabaneh’s Maya King Farms alleged that their terminations in May of 2001 were as a result of their efforts to form a union.

14 July 2009, Banana Link

On the afternoon of July 2nd the Honduran trade union activist and COSIBAH (Coordination of Honduran Banana and Agro-Industrial Workers) representative, Iris Munguia, was arrested along with many others whilst participating in a protest demanding the return of the elected president, Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

ITUC, June 2009

Worldwide in 2008, at least 76 labour activists were killed as a result of their actions for workers’ rights. Latin America remains the deadliest continent for trade unionists with over 66 murdered in 2008. 49 Colombian trade unionists lost their lives (including 16 union leaders, 4 of whom were women), a 25% increase over 2007. Trade unionists were also killed in Guatemala (9), Honduras (3) and Venezuela (4) among others.

Read the 2009 Annual Survey of violations of trade union rights published by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Visit our Guatemala campaign page to learn more about the situation in the banana sector.

10 June 2009, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific

Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), an international group working towards the reduction and elimination of pesticides, criticized Croplife and the Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) for reacting negatively to a Department of Health (DOH) study and claiming that pesticides are safe to use.

13 May 2009, Banana Link

The Guatemalan union, UNSITRAGUA has submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court in response to the reversal of a labour court judge’s decision in 2008 which ordered the reinstatement of the workers of Olga Maria. Olga Maria is a company that supplies Chiquita Brands.

17 April 2009, www.refertrends.com

Union Sintrainagro has called for an indefinite strike starting next week following
the failure of negotiations over a reform of working practices.

March 2009, Bridges

European and Latin American negotiators appear to be nearing a conclusion to the WTO’s longest-running dispute, unofficial sources from both sides say.

In February, the EU reportedly offered to lower its most-favoured-nation banana tariff from -176 per metric tonne to -114 per tonne by 2019. This is three years later than was envisaged in the compromise reached during the WTO ‘mini-ministerial’ in July 2008. When that meeting collapsed, the EU took the deal off the table, insisting it was contingent on a successful conclusion of Doha Round negotiating modalities.

February 2008, ITUC

A new ITUC report on core labour standards in Guatemala issued to coincide with the trade policy review at the WTO demonstrates how trade unionists are being discriminated against, threatened and even murdered as a result of their trade union activities.

The ITUC report particularly condemns the failure of the Guatemalan government to ensure that the murders of trade unionists are investigated and prosecuted. 'The killings, the death threats and the harassment must be stopped immediately,' stated Guy Ryder, ITUC general secretary. 'The continuous violent repression of workers' right to form and join trade unions shows that the government is failing to implement the ILO Conventions it has ratified and that trade unionists do not have the liberty to carry out their union tasks without risking their lives.'

February 2009, Bananalink

Unions and media from Costa Rica are concerned about the new “Social and Economic Plan” presented by President Oscar Arias' government to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis.

February 2009, Fairtrade Foundation

Eat a Fairtrade banana and be part of the world's biggest banana event. The Fairtrade Foundation are celebrating the success of Fairtrade bananas in the UK where one in every four bananas sold is Fairtrade certified with plans to make this 50% by 2012.

Read more...

27 January 2009, Action Aid

Moves last week by Asda and Morrisons to slash the price of bananas were branded shockingly irresponsible by development charities today. They say the price cuts are a serious setback in the ongoing battle to improve the appallingly poor conditions endured by plantation workers in the developing world. Campaigners fear that other supermarkets will follow suit and slash prices. 

Read more...

Read a response to Banana Link concerns about the banana price wars from Asda boss Andy Bond. 

14 January 2009

Last Thursday an earthquake hit the Sarapaqui banana producing region of Costa Rica which only last month was devastated by flooding leaving thousands homeless and without jobs. Local media report at least 40 dead and over 500 houses destroyed by the earthquake, although our union partners fear the death toll is higher with many more yet to be accounted for since the earthquake struck.

18 December, ITUC

“The international trade union movement is keeping a close watch on the responses to the economic and financial crisis to ensure that they are not at the expense of the fundamental rights of migrant workers,” warned Guy Ryder, general secretary of the ITUC. At a time of massive job losses, migrant workers, often confined to the most precarious and least protected jobs, are in the front line of the economic and financial crisis.  Their families in their countries of origin could also be badly affected, as they often depend heavily for their survival on money sent home by the migrant workers.

15 December 2008, International Labor Rights Forum

A new report by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) shows how global food corporations fail to respect human rights, public health and the environment in their supply chains. The report demonstrates how pineapple workers and their communities in two of the largest pineapple producing nations, Costa Rica and the Philippines, have not enjoyed the benefits of the expanding profits from the pineapple export sector. Trade benefits awarded to these countries have not improved labor or environmental conditions, though Dole is currently petitioning the U.S. Trade Representative for further tariff reductions on its pineapple products.

15 December 2008, International Labor Rights Forum

A new report published by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), to mark International Human Rights Day, has highlighted corporations known for violating workers’ freedom of association and right to organize. Selected on the basis of their ties to violence against trade unions and suppression of the universal right to organise, this year’s top offenders include three of the main actors along the international tropical fruit supply chain - Dole, Del Monte and Wal-Mart. 

December 2008
Torrential rains have destroyed banana plantations in the Caribbean coastal regions of Costa Rica. It is estimated that up to 10,000 hectares have been affected which could lead to the loss of 10,000 jobs in the banana export industry. At least 46,000 people have been rendered homeless with damage running into tens of millions of US dollars. A state of emergency has been declared in the Limon and Sarapiqui regions.

27 November 2008, www.freshplaza.com

An appeal by the EU has fallen through after the WTO confirmed that the bloc's banana import policies were inconsistent with global trade rules
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has this week ruled that the European Union's import tariffs for bananas break global commerce rules, dismissing an appeal by the bloc. The decision confirms the verdict reached by the WTO's dispute settlement panel in April, which ruled that duties should be brought in line with global trade agreements, following complaints by Ecuador and the US that current tariffs unfairly favoured African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries.

24 November 2008, www.reefertrends.com

Costa Rica's independent banana producers are asking the Government to impose a 19% increase to cover the rise in production costs. The current reference price of US$7.17 per box is due for revision on 1 January 2009 – the independent producers, who account for 16K hectares of the total estimated 40K hectares of banana production in Costa Rica, are asking that the price paid to them by the exporters should rise to US$8.50 per box. The reasons behind the demand include a rise in the cost of controlling Black Sigatoka, increased packaging and fertilizer costs. Only three months ago the reference price was increased from US$6.45 per box to account for an increase in production costs.

16 November 2008, www.reefertrends.com

Ethiopia currently produces an estimated 200K MT of bananas per year, all of which is destined for domestic consumption. Efforts are underway to enable Ethiopia supply banana to the world market for the first time, according to an Ethiopian investor engaged in banana cultivation. In an interview published with the Ethiopian News Agency ENA the investor, Gebrekerstos Gad claimed that his company was undertaking various activities to improve the quality of banana in preparation for an export push. “We already have started quality improving activities through the application of tissue culture, [agricultural practice used to propagate plants under germ-free conditions] to get our own quality banana varieties,” he said. He claimed his company has had similar experiences in the Cameroon and that it plans to start exporting bananas next year.

13 November 2008

The Costa Rican press has reported that Brussels will make a new proposal for reducing the EU banana tariff, following the demise of the 'peace agreement' brokered by WTO Director-general Pascal Lamy in Geneva in late July. It is understood that the offer will be made in the framework of the EU-Central America Association Agreement negotiations currently at their half-way point. If accepted, the proposal would see an initla fall from 176 euros/tonne to 148 euros on 1st January 2009, then a gradual step-by-step reduction to 95 euros over a period of ten years.

 The Latin America 2008 conference Making a Better World Possible will be taking place in London on 6th December. The event brings together trade unionists, NGOs, academics and progressive movements from Latin America and the UK to explore recent developments across the region.

4th November, San José

Trade unions from both private and public sector in Costa Rica have lodged a formal complaint against their government, alleging serious and systematic violations of core international labour standards. The complaint is directed to the European Commission which, since January 2006, grants trade preferences on a wide range of products as part of its Generalised System of Preferences "Plus" scheme.

3rd November, Radiojamaica.com

Scores of workers who are to be made redundant at the Eastern Banana Estates in St. Thomas are asking to take over ownership of the land they had worked. The workers are among a group of 500 who assembled on Friday morning to receive their redundancy payments. The Estate closed down after it was destroyed by Tropical Storm Gustav in August of this year.

4 November 2008, jamaica-gleaner.com

Prime Minister Bruce Golding painted a bleak picture of the future of the banana industry last Tuesday, during a sitting of the House of Representatives. "What we need to do is to move with the land resources we have, the infrastructure that is there to see how we can diversify," Golding told the House. Already, the chief producers of banana for export have pulled out of production. The straw that broke the camel's back was Tropical Storm Gustav, which destroyed a vast percentage of banana crops in eastern Jamaica.

27 October 2008

Voters overwhelmingly approved a new constitution on Sunday 28th September that amongst other things ended labour sub-contracting in all sectors of the economy in Ecuador and heralded other important reforms to labour law. The new constitution also includes reference to the idea of food sovereignty - a world first. Despite constant predictions of a close vote, nearly 64% of the voters approved and only 29% were against.