This is the second part of a blog by Rachel Wilshaw, former Workers’ Rights Senior Manager for Oxfam GB and author of publications including Steps towards a living wage in global supply chains and Trapped in Poverty: Workers’ Rights in Supermarket Supply Chains and who recently joined the Banana Link board as a non-executive Director.
You can read Part 1 here
Occupational Health & Safety
Promoting better health and safety practices and education for workers on plantations has been another major strand of Banana Link’s work over the years.
Their most significant contribution being made through a coordinating role in the World Banana Forum’s Banana Occupational Health and Safety Initiative (BOHESI), which brought together government, companies, producers, certifiers, trade unions and NGOs to improve Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) prevention, management, and control mechanisms at the plantation level.
Banana Link were responsible for coordination of OHS training manuals for use in Ecuador and Cameroon, that have formed the basis of plantation training programmes in both countries.
Banana Link has subsequently adapted these manuals for its own independent OHS programme in Ghana, which has included the production of Guidelines On Healthy And Safe Employment Of Women In The Ghanaian Banana Industry, and seen them pioneer a worker led OHS risk assessment methodology.
Small farmers and agroecology
Sustainable production systems which reduce dependence on hazardous substances and minimise adverse health and environmental impacts on natural resources, workers and communities, including the promotion of South-South exchanges of learning and experience, has always been another key objective of Banana Link.
To this end, Banana Link established the International Alliance for Sustainable Family Farming (IASFF), which brings together small family farming organisations, trade unions and civil society organisations to work towards the expansion of organic and agroecological agriculture with sustainable and fair farm-to-market programs that respect rights of farmers, workers and unions.
Banana Link has also sought to document and share examples of best practice in sustainable farming methods, such as organic production at Compagnie Fruitière’s Golden Exotics Limited plantation in Ghana in the video below.
Advocating and campaigning for change
Pressuring governments, European supermarkets and ethical certifying bodies to act to improve working conditions and farming practices in banana supply chains has also been a key element of Banana Link’s work.
This work has seen some significant achievements, such as the fact that three leading retailers in the UK – Sainsbury, the Co-operative Group and Waitrose – only sell Fairtrade bananas while virtually all other UK supermarkets have ethical banana buying policies.
Lobbying of the European Parliament through various campaigns, most notably the 2015 – 2018 Make Fruit Fair Campaign, contributed in part to the propagation of the European Union Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive adopted in 2024, which mandates will that companies identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts of their actions inside and outside Europe.
Banana Link lobbying also contributed to a strengthening of Fairtrade certification standards for workers. This included guaranteeing the right of workers freely to organise and collectively bargain, and gave workers more control over how to spend the Fairtrade premium. Fairtrade also introduced a new methodology to set living wage benchmarks and a clear process for plantations to progress towards a living wage.
Rethinking Value Chains
In 2016 Banana Link established the Rethinking Value Chains (RVC) collective that brought together civil society actors – including NGOs, trade unions, academic institutions – to provide a space to engage in fundamental discussions on the current dominating economic system (neo-liberalism) and ways in which we can work together towards sustainable alternatives that put people and the environment first.
Alongside this, Banana Link also coordinated the establishment of Rethinking Global Value Chains platform, in cooperation with the University of Montpellier, to enhance the visibility of research and teaching approaches that offer perspectives on responsible management in global value chains, while acknowledging the prominent role of social movements in making visible and debatable their social and environmental challenges.
A “Go-To” Authority on the Banana Trade
Banana Link has over its thirty years of existence become a respected authority on global banana supply chains and is a “go-to” voice for UK and international media on all important developments in the industry.
“Banana Link is the go-to authority on information about what is happening within the banana industry” – Ethical Consumer Magazine, May/June 2017
What others have to say
“We share with Banana Link the common principal objective to make banana and tropical fruits production, labour, trade and consumption sustainable. Pursuing this aim, we have been partners in many international initiatives, campaigns, networks and calls for immediate action whereby Banana Link has always been a driving force. We have witnessed Banana Link’s birth, growth and achievements from the beginnings three decades ago, with the joint founding of EUROBAN, and remember with pleasure the productive cooperation and friendly communication between the staff of our organisations.” – Rudi Pfeifer, Armin Klöckner, Helge Fischer on behalf of BanaFair
“Banana Link is an extraordinary organisation in several ways: the small group of staff punches well above its weight in the banana industry in terms of the quality and quantity of its activities, they are a primary channel for the voice of organised labour to be heard downstream in global supply chains, they excel in their support for embryonic trade unions and facilitation of collaboration between unions, and their broad expertise extends across labour rights, industrial relations, agroecology and international trade. The Banana Link team has always applied these attributes with ceaseless commitment, energy, and personal dedication, not imposing their views but at the service of workers and their unions. Banana Link has made important contributions to the work of Fairtrade on labour, as a member of the Fairtrade Workers’ Rights Advisory Committee and as our partner in numerous projects.” – Wilbert Flinterman, on behalf of Fairtrade International
Comrades and sisters, blessings to you all. It is a pleasure to congratulate the entire Banana Link team, who, with such commitment, dedication and hard work, have contributed to the organisational and institutional development of all organisations linked to the banana sector and other areas of agricultural production across Latin America, as well as other institutions around the world, in Africa and elsewhere. I congratulate Banana Link on its 30th anniversary of constant struggle and unceasing effort in the pursuit of social action for better living and working conditions in the banana sector and the agricultural sector. Various institutions have managed to advance their institutional development thanks to the friendly collaboration and supportive solidarity of Banana Link. Blessings today, congratulations to all of you, and to ourselves, who are part of the institution, as we look forward with enthusiasm to taking on the challenges of the present and the future. Blessings and congratulations. – Crusito Miguel Toribio, President of SINTRAPBAA, Dominican Republic.
Video message from Margaret McKee, Chair, UNISON International Committee, and James Anthony, UNISON Vice President and International Committee member
Overall, we can say that without a doubt this small team of dedicated and knowledgeable people has made a disproportionately great difference to people in this important and challenging industry and we hope will continue to do so for many years to come.
Rachel Wilshaw
June 2026
