Fairtrade Bananas

3 Fairtrade Bananas Introduction Bananas are important farm output both in domestic consumption and in commercial purposes. According to the latest statistical figures, Hundred million tonnes of this valuable output are consumed yearly over the globe. From the aforementioned figure, 15 million metric tonnes are exported (Ramson 2006). Bananas have a history and are better placed in the global market as a relatively important commodity. Bananas are ranked among the celebrated stable foodstuff in the world, it comes forth. In addition, it is arguably among the drought resistant crop that generates a lot of revenue to exporting countries. It is ranked at position five after the obvious commercial goods i.e. “cereals and coffee”. Being a drought resistant crop, many countries have invested much in its production. This move has increased the level of competition in the banana industry. However, despite the concentration of the product, only individual supplies do 20% of banana sales, the other percentage is in the hands of five large corporations. These huge corporations dictate the pricing of bananas. Their decisions are often selfish therefore disadvantaging the small-scale suppliers.

Despite the good retail prices, the large corporations subject farmers and other suppliers to dismal prices for their commodities (Dankers & Liu 2003). This has left most farmers and their employees trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. Their living standards are inhuman as they often struggle to make ends meet. The toil of the farmers and peasants is not fully rewarded. Intermediaries, brokers and big corporates smile all the way to the bank while the hard working farmers languish in abject poverty. The payment to farmers is divided between domestic consumption and other production costs. In addition, farmers have to split the small revenue fraction to its employees who also have dependents.