Resources

Training manual on health and safety risk assessment: Global Banana Export Industry

This manual aims to accompany professionals working in the export banana industry to become change makers and competent persons in improving health, safety and environmental conditions in the industry, to help ensure a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable value chain.

The manual offers the relevant informational and practical support to those delivering – and those receiving – training on occupational health and safety, based on the principle that the best way to ensure a safe and healthy workplace – for all workers – is through effective workplace health and safety risk management and risk assessment.

https://www.bananalink.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/FINAL-ENG_Banana-Link-OHS-Risk-Assessment-Manual.pdf

Manuel de formation sur l’évaluation des risques en matière de santé et sécurité: Industrie mondiale d’exportation de la banane

Ce manuel a pour objectif d’accompagner les professionnel.le.s du secteur de
l’exportation de la banane, afin qu’iels deviennent des acteur.rice.s du changement et des personnes compétentes pour l’amélioration des conditions de santé, de sécurité et d’environnement dans ce secteur. Il vise à garantir une chaîne de valeur durable sur le plan social, économique et environnemental.

Le manuel offre un soutien informatif et pratique pertinent à celles et ceux qui dispensent – et qui reçoivent – une formation sur la SST, en partant du principe que le meilleur moyen de garantir un lieu de travail sûr et sain – pour tous.tes les travailleur. euse.s – passe par une gestion et une évaluation efficace des risques pour la SST.

https://www.bananalink.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/FINAL-FR_Banana-Link-SST-Manuel-dEvaluation-des-Risques.pdf

Thirty years of banana workers’ struggles in Latin America

In this book, it is not my intention to provide an account of the presence of the large transnational corporations that have dominated banana production and marketing. That is a task for the specialists. Nor do I wish to provide a review or analysis of the literature on bananas. I leave that to the academics. In this text, I simply wish to offer a brief overview of some episodes and struggles of banana
workers in various Latin American countries.

Motivated by the labour injustices I witnessed and the encouragement of fellow workers, I joined the trade union as soon as I could. Over the last fifty years, I have dedicated part of my life to fighting for the rights of banana and agroindustrial workers, not only in Costa Rica, but also across Latin America. After all these years, I still believe that trade union organisation is the legitimate way to defend the rights of the working class.

https://www.bananalink.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/THIRTY-YEARS-OF-BANANA-WORKERS-STRUGGLES-IN-LATIN-AMERICA.pdf

Treinta años de luchas de los trabajadores del sector del banano en América Latina

En este libro, no es mi propósito hacer un recuento de la presencia de las grandes empresas transnacionales que han dominado la producción y comercialización del banano. Esa es una tarea para los especialistas. Tampoco quiero hacer un recuento o análisis de la literatura bananera. Eso se lo dejo a los académicos. En este texto, quiero de manera sencilla, hacer un recorrido breve sobre algunos episodios y
luchas de los trabajadores bananeros en varios países de América Latina.

Motivado por las injusticias laborales que observaba y el aliento de otros compañeros, en cuanto pude, me incorporé a la organización sindical. En los últimos cincuenta años, he dedicado parte de mi vida a luchar por los derechos de los
trabajadores bananeros y agroindustriales, no sólo en Costa Rica, sino también en América Latina. Después de tantos años, sigo creyendo que la organización sindical es la forma legítima de reivindicar los derechos de la clase obrera.

https://www.bananalink.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/TREINTA-ANOS-DE-LUCHAS-DE-LOS-TRABAJADORES-DEL-SECTOR-DEL-BANANO-EN-AMERICA-LATINA.pdf

Wage And Contractual Conditions Among Banana Workers On Banana Farms And Plantations In The Province Of El Oro, Ecuador – 2024 (Updated January 2026)

A Banana Link report on the findings of field research among banana plantation workers in Ecuador’s El Oro region has found that most workers say their salary is inadequate to meet their family’s needs. In addition, workers lack formal contracts of employment or knowledge of their terms of employment, with women experiencing more precarious working conditions and poorer pay than their male colleagues. Obstacles to workers ability to exercise their right to freedom of association and collective bargaining further compound these challenges.

https://www.bananalink.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Wages-and-Contractual-Conditions-and-FoA-in-Ecuador-Revised-Jan-2026-.pdf

Promoting Social Dialogue for Living Wages, Decent Work and Sustainable Production

Banana Link Annual Review 2023-24

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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