Banana ORGANIC AND FAIRTRADE: DIFFICULT COMBINATION The impact of the bad weather, which resulted in high prices on the banana market earlier this year, passed by the Fairtrade bananas. “We’ve had plenty of supply,” Bert says. The organic Fairtrade bananas have been less available since mid-2017. “This market is very large in Germany, but we had to pull out all the stops to supply plenty of organic Fairtrade bananas.”
chain often turn out to already be certified as well.”
ENOUGH SUPPLY FOR CONTINUED GROWTH There’s much room for growth in the supply of bananas. “If the entire Netherlands were to switch today, there’d be plenty of volume,” Bert says. There are certified growers in Latin America, where most of the Fairtrade bananas are harvested, who sell about 60 to 70 per cent of their harvest as Fairtrade. “We could therefore grow by
30 per cent in any case. The supply is very large, we’re not worried about that.” Besides the room to grow within the current supply, the number of certified growers is also increasing. The certified production areas in Latin America are becoming larger, Fairtrade has also been active in Africa for some years now. Cameroon, Ghana and Ivory Coast mostly export the Fairtrade bananas to the British and French markets. “In these countries, the market for African bananas is growing, but these bananas are unknown in the Netherlands.”
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The organic production of bananas is mostly limited to Peru and the Dominican Republic. In other countries in the region, such as Ecuador, the organic production is also expanding. “It continues to be difficult, because the bananas grow well in a moist environment, but that’s also a good environment for diseases and fungi.” The organic certification is done without consulting Fairtrade, it’s in the hands of organic certification institutions such as Skal. jongert@maxhavelaar.nl (RM)
jongert@maxhavelaar.nl
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AGF Primeur • Special Edition Fruit Logistica • 2019