Resources

Moving forward the agenda for transformation: Banana Link’s Review of 2021 – 2022

Over the last two years, our small team grappled with big emerging trends in the export banana industry, with long-running discussions around living income and living wage for banana plantation workers finally taking form as clearly defined objectives by retailer groups in several European countries, recognising their shared responsibility to transform a sector long characterised by poor pay and poor working conditions in producing countries.

Discussions around the urgency of moving towards more sustainable practices that protect and encourage biodiversity in the banana industry have moved from a marginal position to occupy a central place in the debate, with many recognising the significance of agroecological transition as way forward, with the potential to create robust and healthy systems that stand a much better chance of surviving in the face of diseases like Tropical Race 4.

Banana Link continued to play a key role in industry debates, representing the interests and ideas of our workers’ union and small farmer partners. We continued to fundraise and support the strengthening of our trade union partners in banana producing regions across Latin America, the Caribbean and Central and West Africa. We continued to build our capacity to engage with and advocate for small farmers through working with their cooperatives and associations, despite having extremely limited funding available to do so.

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Engaging, educating and advocating for a fairer banana trade

BANANA LINK ANNUAL REVIEW 2018 – 19

The vast majority of our work is delivered through partner organisations, whom we enable to achieve scalable and sustainable impact.

In 2018/9 we are proud to have made an impact on the lives of workers and farmers around the world as illustrated in this Annual Review.

THE REVIEW ALSO OUTLINES OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR 2018 – 19

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An Analysis of Working & Living Conditions in Banana Plantations in Cameroon

This is the third and final report of an initial three-year-long Banana Link and Fako Agricultural Workers Union (FAWU) partnership project which aims to improve the living and working conditions for workers on banana plantations in the Fako District in the South West of Cameroon.

The data and research findings published in this report relate solely to the conditions found in Cameroon during the one month research programme carried out on behalf of Banana Link. The data that follows is representative of structured questionnaires which were completed by workers over a period of three and a half weeks at eleven different plantations in the Fako region, in the South West of Cameroon.

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Now I Am Bold!
Empowering Tropical Fruit Workers In Africa

Between 2013 and 2016, Banana Link worked with the General Agricultural Workers Union of Ghana (GAWU) and the Fako Agricultural Workers Union (FAWU) in Cameroon to educate and empower workers and their unions to negotiate living wages and improved conditions on banana and pineapple plantations.

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Rainforest Alliance and the Discount Supermarkets
Low Prices and Easy Standards

The year 2016 has seen a spate of announcements by supermarkets expressing their renewed commitment to sustainability. The flagship product chosen by many to symbolise this commitment will be bananas and to a lesser extent pineapples. Several chains including Lidl and Aldi are promising 100% certified bananas.

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Banana Splits
Bananas, Supermarkets, and A Tale of Unfair Trading Practices

Bananas are a major staple as well as an important cash crop in developing countries and the most eaten fruit in Europe and Northern America. For decades, the banana economy has been a key example of trade injustice.

The concentration of power in the hands of a few multinational companies has negatively affected the lives of thousands of banana workers and small farmers. These large fruit companies now compete to be the ‘preferred suppliers’ of the retailers whose increasing market dominance gives them the power to control banana value chains across the globe.

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Women in The Banana Export Industry
Global Overview

“Women in the Banana Export Industry: Global Overview” provides a summary of the main findings from three regional reports on the economic aspects of gender issues in the banana sector.

Together, these reports consider the experiences of women workers and small producers across three of the main regional centres of production of bananas for export: Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean.

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Women in the Banana Export Industry
Regional Report on Latin America

Women in the Banana Export Industry Regional Report on Latin America is part of a global report on the economic aspects of gender issues in the banana sector.

It is based on research conducted in Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua with a primary focus on the situation for hired labour and analyses levels of women’s employment in the region and the key challenges for women workers. The report will inform the work of the World Banana Forum.

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Steps Towards a Living Wage in Global Supply Chains

What are the barriers to ensuring that a living wage is paid, and what are the root causes of low wages? Almost a century after the ILO constitution recognized the need for workers to earn a living wage, this Oxfam paper outlines the compelling reasons for responsible companies to act now to raise wages that are inadequate to meet the needs of workers and their families.

The paper looks at the positive steps taken in a range of sectors, and provides a framework for deeper change. It highlights initiatives already underway and aims to help companies which source from developing countries to understand the issue and what success looks like from an Oxfam perspective. It includes recommendations, signposts further reading and suggests indicators of good practice.

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Britains Bruising Banana Wars

The Fairtrade Foundation commissioned this report in order to understand the dynamics affecting the distribution of value in banana supply chains. We also wanted to assess the impact of the failure to deliver adequate value on the lives of banana farmers and workers and their ability to secure long-term sustainable livelihoods. We wanted to assess how far a falling retail price translates into problems for producers.

Our aim is to set out what can be done to change things for the better. The Fairtrade Foundation wants to see farmers and workers building sustainable, decent futures from the bananas they grow. We hope that this report will be a call to action for government, retailers and the public to build a more sustainable and ethical banana industry.

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The Sour Taste of Pineapple: How an Expanding Export Industry Undermines Workers and Their Communities

Since the 1960’s, pineapple production has quadrupled and export has tripled worldwide. While profits for some have tremendously expanded under such development, this report demonstrates how pineapple workers, their families and communities, and the environment in the largest pineapple producing nations have not enjoyed the benefits of such growth.

ILRF’s partner labor advocacy NGOs in Costa Rica, ASEPROLA, and in the Philippines, EILER, have found abundant evidence that labor rights abuses, inhumane working conditions, and environmental degradation have plagued the industry around the world. These groups conducted fi eld research on pineapple plantations and processing facilities.

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Dole…Behind the Smoke-screen… What is new since our report on the company’s plantations in Latin America in 2006?

Three years on from “Dole, behind the smoke screen… Investigation in the banana plantations of Latin America”, this report assesses the progress made as a result of the campaign, but also to consider the numerous issues that remain unresolved and the road left to travel. This is the purpose of this document.

Like the first report, this document is based on contributions from plantation workers and their trade unions in banana producing countries.

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Dole, behind the smoke screen…An investigation into Dole’s banana plantations in Latin America

The focus of this report is Dole’s Latin American banana operations, although the authors believe that the picture painted is unfortunately representative of many Dole operations around the world.

This report is based on a number of contributions from people on the ground, people working in the plantations, trade unionists and environmentalists, mainly in Latin American banana exporting countries. Our aim is to contribute to a more accurate portrait of the biggest single sector of the company’s operations, as well as to motivate Dole to change its practices in a more sustainable direction with full respect for workers’ rights and the environment.

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Are International Supply Chains increasing poverty?

This paper looks at the impact of changes in the way international supply chains operate on workers and producers in developing countries. Relationships within supply chains can be organised be so that each part of the chain benefits in proportion to its contribution. In this way trade would be reducing poverty. This briefing paper charts the sometimes negative impacts of business practices within our increasingly global trading system and recommends some solutions.

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Unpeeling the banana trade: A Fairtrade Foundation Briefing Paper

The banana: cheap, colourful and the UK’s firm favourite in the fruit department. But delve into the reality behind the piles of yellow fruit on our supermarket shelves and the story is not always so sunny. This briefing sets out to explain why we all need to go further and make Fairtrade bananas the norm in our shops and supermarkets. It explains why the situation for so many banana producers remains so precarious, describes the impact that Fairtrade has had in the banana sector so far and identifies what more can be done to support those at the bottom of the banana supply chain.

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Checked out: Are European supermarkets living up to their responsibilities for labour conditions in the developing world?

This report is part of a project that seeks to inform European consumers about the impact of supermarket policies on producers and suppliers in developing countries and engage them in actions to support poverty reduction and development. Leading supermarkets in Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain were surveyed on their policies relating to labour conditions and trading relationships in developing country supply chains.

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