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AgroFair marks 25 years of Fairtrade Fairtrade fruit specialist AgroFair has witnessed big changes over the past 25 years, but the company’s Frank Vermeersch and Luud Clercx recognise that the job is far from done. by Tom Joyce @tomfruitnet
T
his year marks 25 years of Fairtrade bananas. Would you tell us a little bit about
the journey AgroFair and Fairtrade have been on? Frank Vermeersch: I wasn’t there when it started, but I’m sure that at that moment there was a feeling of “against all odds”. The founding fathers of our company were the same as Max Havelaar. They knew already that with coffee something was very wrong, and they realised that with bananas it was a little bit the same. It has been quite a journey, with ups and downs, and now we are at this famous 25 years, and we realise that the job hasn’t been completed. There are a lot of other things that
Has the Covid-19 crisis highlighted
In the long run, you need a variety that is resistant
need to be tackled now.
the importance of a robust
against this disease. So there are now efforts going on,
sustainable supply chain?
breeding to create this resistant variety. But it will take
Luud Clercx: A lot has happened
10-12 years, I think.
in that time. We started with a few
LC: Covid was an important
containers, now we’re doing more
lesson, although it didn’t affect the
biodiversity in the soil, and there’s a lot of competition
than 100 containers a week. And
banana sector very much – we still
among the microorganisms. There’s a food web in the
also other importers have started
delivered to Europe. It’s important
soil itself, so other microorganisms attack this fungus.
with Fairtrade. The concept of
to take biosecurity measures, for
This hypothesis is being tested.
what Fairtrade is has also changed.
people’s health and also now for
Nowadays, what’s also important
this new disease which appeared
is biodiversity, sustainable soil
in Peru and Colombia, TR4. This
management, promoting healthy
is a very serious question for the
FV: Nowadays, everybody’s asking for organic
soils, recycling plastic waste,
banana sector because there’s
Fairtrade, which is a good thing. But there’s still a lot
reducing pesticides, carbon
nothing you can do about it except
of conventional Fairtrade. There is a danger that those
footprint, water footprint.
take biosecurity measures at the
who can only grow conventional Fairtrade will be
farm gate and also at the national
pushed back into poverty.
We now have a project to recycle banana plastic in Peru and the Dominican Republic. We have
level. Because this is a soil-borne
What you see with organic bananas is greater
Finally, where next for Fairtrade?
There’s also the price issue, which is a race to the bottom. It’s ridiculous, asking for €0.69-€0.99 for 1kg of
another project in the Dominican
disease, there’s a hypothesis
bananas. You cannot explain this anymore. It’s simply
Republic helping our producers get
that the more biodiversity in
not possible. In fact, it has to stop. _
group certification for the alliance
the soil, the better, as part of the
for water stewardship in the future.
first defence lines against TR4.
ABOVE—Greater biodiversity could help fight TR4
fresh focus banana 2021
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