ANALYSIS Publication Sponsor
Prices must include real costs The argument between producers and distributors concerning banana prices is not about to go away.
ALISTAIR SMITH Banana Link International coordinator
G
rowers are insisting, rightly, that if the market wants living wages, decent contracts and working conditions, as well as positive environmental impacts at the production end, then this has
to be reflected in prices that cover the costs, with a margin for investment in what buyers and consumers actually want. “Shared responsibility” is the watchword; and bananas can no longer be treated as a loss leader whose buying price can be infinitely squeezed. The TR4 threat hanging over the whole industry is just one symptom of a production system that has reached its limits. New varieties and diversified agroecological methods are not a utopian luxury, but
– but also to what can be done to put the industry on a
need to be explored as a way out of multiple crises that
different track.
affect all those whose livelihoods depend on the trade. Growers are now presenting a united front, and
It is finally emerging from the scientific community that the only solutions to managing the TR4 disease
this is encouraging. The exporting countries and their
probably lie in soil management, feeding soils
producers could take measures to control supply, but
biologically rather than chemically. But
buyers urgently need to play their part and understand
the investment that is required to
that all the economic, social and environmental issues
make the transition on a large scale
affecting the industry are interlinked. Trying to resolve
can only be made if the industry
one set of issues without seeing the whole picture will
makes a united effort.
not lead to sustainable bananas for all. Keeping buying
Many banana scientists are
prices down is ultimately the surest way of causing the
ready to support a transition. Many
collapse of the whole industry.
banana companies see the writing
Consumers in many countries have led the way in
1 in 8
bananas sold in north america last year were organic
on the wall for the conventional
giving the banana sector the biggest Fairtrade market
Cavendish monoculture, even if they are
share in Europe with around 10 per cent, and a rapidly
not comfortable saying so publicly. Many workers
growing organic share. Nearly one in eight bananas
are ready to contribute to these efforts on a daily basis
sold in North America last year were organic, for
if producers accept that they cannot go it alone without
example. This should be a signal to the big buyers that
the participation of their workforce.
they can go further, as we are no longer talking about market ‘niches’ for organic and Fairtrade. For years, Banana Link has sought to alert key
The question is no longer whether to act or what to do, but rather how and when. The World Banana Forum provides the space to work this out. The price of not
players and consumers not only to what is wrong – and
heeding all the signals would be much higher than
all the negative impacts of the current banana system
investing in genuinely sustainable bananas. _
ABOVE—The
threat of TR4 hangs over the whole industry
fresh focus banana 2021
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