We’ve been selling Fairtrade bananas for more than 20 years
Now one in three bananas bought in the UK is Fairtrade, making a huge difference to thousands of communities.
How the climate crisis affects banana farmers…
Bananas like it hot. They grow best in tropical weather, where it’s warm and humid, which means the Caribbean an ideal location for banana farming.
Did you know?
According to this Fairtrade Foundation article, bananas originally came from Asia but today they come from all over the world. Most of the bananas sold in the UK come from Latin America, whereas India produces the most bananas overall. 90% of all Fairtrade bananas come from Latin America and the Caribbean. There are currently 258 Fairtrade certified banana organisations (co-operatives and commercial farms), representing over 36,480 farmers and workers in 16 countries.
The Caribbean is unfortunately prone to cyclones and as a result of climate change, these terrible weather conditions are becoming more frequent and much stronger.
Imagine being a farmer, relying on your crops for your income but your farm has been destroyed by a storm. You can’t afford to replant and recover as you’re the prices you receive for your crops are so low. Meaning you have no choice but to take out loans.
How choosing Fairtrade helps
This content was originally published on The Fairtrade Foundation
“The banana farmers of Las Mercedes, in the Dominican Republic, have used their Fairtrade Premium to develop a disaster recovery fund, to help out members should the worst happen. The Fairtrade Premium is for farmers to decide how to invest to benefit their businesses and communities, and the farmers of Las Mercedes are not low on ideas. Their disaster recovery fund is ready to go at short notice. After any extreme weather, the farmers survey their farms for signs of damage. The co-operative’s technicians recommend what needs to be covered – it could be new planting, repairs to farm buildings or equipment. The funds are then made available to the farmers, either in cash, or in some cases, fertiliser.”
Ángel Guzmán Santana’s story
“Banana farmer Ángel Guzmán Santana, 54, knows what it’s like to see your hard work swept away – the first time his farm was hit was in 2016. ‘The flooding damaged, I would say, 100 percent of the plantation,’ Ángel says. It took months for some in the co-operative to get their farms back on their feet, but there was more in store. After replanting in 2017, Ángel and his family were dealt another blow as Hurricanes Irma and Maria swept in. Ángel explains the impact of extreme weather on his farm: ‘Not having a producing plantation because the wind took it away, meant for me that I couldn’t have an income because I could not export, nor could I produce for the local market.’
‘When you’re in this situation, even if you are producing, to rehabilitate the affected areas the small earnings one has are not enough,’ explains Ángel. ‘You need to source money from wherever you can to complement your income and be able to rehabilitate the plantation.’
That’s where the fund comes in. ‘Thanks to the fund I have been able to continue to cultivate my land,’ says Ángel. ‘The example is that that area down there is an area that was 100 percent affected, and thanks to the fund I was able to work again in that area and nowadays we are seeing the fruits of that help the fund provided.’ Without it, he says, he would either have had to wait longer to replant, or not been able to do it at all.”
Fellow Las Mercedes farmer Árelis Bueno, 48, says: ‘For the rest of the community, this fund means a lot, because every person living in the community, their earnings depend on these farms, they can sustain their family.’
The Las Mercedes farmers are also using the Premium to shore up their defences against the effects of the weather in the future. Árelis says: ‘To help tackle climate change we are planting trees through Fairtrade. We are planting the trees in the banks of the river and we are also building the walls around the river.’
According to data from the Fairtrade Foundation, in 2020 Fairtrade banana farmers and workers earned £31.8 million in Fairtrade Premiums.
96% of banana small-scale farmers surveyed in Colombia said that their economic situation had improved since joining Fairtrade. These farmers reported an average 34% increase in income because of Fairtrade.”
