Banana Link, in partnership with German NGOs Institut Südwind and Bread for the World, Danish General Workers’ Union 3F, Compagnie Fruitière, Grupo AgroAmérica, Fairtrade International, SAVID Dominicana, Banafair and Equifruit, organised a two week series of activities designed to promote a common agenda of shared responsibility for fair pricing, living remuneration for all, the full respect for human and labour rights, gender equity, safe work and an agroecological transition amongst key players across banana chains spanning four continents.
Twenty representatives from twelve countries of Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and East Asia travelled to Spain and Germany in the first half of October to participate in meetings organised by Banana Link, the Latin American Banana Industry Task Force, the World Banana Forum, the intercontinental banana action network EUROBAN and the Alliance for Sustainable Family Farming involving small-scale farmers from Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, the Windward Islands and the Dominican Republic.
Plans were laid for 2023 through 2026 by the network of independent trade unions, small farmers’ organisations and NGOs, meetings were held with over 20 companies from the fruit producing and trading world, and new ideas for collective action and regulation were analysed.
Most crucially, during the Fruit Attraction international trade fair in Madrid the organisations were also able to communicate their shared vision of a transformed banana world with actors as diverse as big retailers, large-scale conventional tropical fruit producers, the European Commission, governments of a dozen banana producing and consuming countries.
