Day3: Introducing Angel Iniguez -the Face Behind All Good

23 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

Today we had the pleasure of meeting the face behind All Good Bananas – Angel Iñiguez. You would have seen Angel in the posters we have in stores. I also got to taste some fresh Ecuadorian water from the reservoir on the Iniguez finca or farm – to show you how much care they show the environment in El Guabo.

We met all the fam too, including his young daughter Daniella (who you’ll see in the video) who is 2½ years old. He has just under 6 hectares of land which his father bought in my name. All of his family works here together. His father tends to the banana plants every day. His mother, sisters, brother and brother-inlaw work in the washing and packing station on the finca on harvesting and shipment days. He enjoys the countryside and agriculture. For him making it a beautiful and lovely place to be and being able to see all the flowers amongst the bananas each day and to bring his daughter here to show her, gives him great pleasure.

It was our pleasure for you to welcome us into your home. Thanks Angel! You guys can have a glimpse of just how beautiful this place is.

Simon & Matt

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Amazing El Guabo, banana palms and jet lag!

22 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

We caught up with Michael and Marco and learnt the ins and outs of organic fertiliser and captured a feel of what a beautiful place El Guabo is for you. Read a bit more about it from yesterday’s blog.

Simon & Matt

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Day 1: Two Kiwis descend on El Guabo

21 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

Well we arrived safely in Ecuador thanks to LAN airways and we’re been bought into the depths of banana country in El Guabo.

What an eye opener! This place is magical. Lush green banana farms as far as the eye can see.

We started the day visiting Michael (pictured) who makes organic fertiliser used by the El Guabo farmers. He pretty much collects all the by-products from the local farms and industry including harvested and processed coca, (coffee) rice grasses, ash, local soil and makes a hearty liquid fertiliser from composting organic waste in tanks beside the shelter in this picture. All the ingredients are is mixed together to compost further then allowed to dry. Michael turns and mixes the maturing fertiliser twice a week using a shovel. In five weeks it is ready to be distributed to all the El Guabo farmers.

Next stop a meeting with Dr Daisy. Dr Daisy works at the El Guabo Association of Small Banana Producers (El Guabo ASBP) Medical Center established by to ensure that every family belonging to the Association, be they farmers or their relatives and children, are able to get good medical care when they need it. The service is available 24 hours a day all year round and is financed by the Fairtrade premium administered here in El Guabo.

The clinic deals with most of the usual community medical ailments that, maternity and young mother and childcare as well as tropical diseases common to the region like Dengi Fever.

Respiratory illnesses, poisoning and severe skin irritation caused by exposure to pesticides used to be prevalent in the area but Dr Daisy observes that since the farms have converted to Fairtrade these problems have gone away.

Then we headed to the mountains of El Oro in El Guabo to meet Luis, Anibul & Noemi Cabrera (pictured), Organic Banana Farmers who have been farming for three generations.

Luis has been farming in the area for 55 years. He moved here when his son, Anibul was 6. The family produce organic bananas without the use of any pesticides or herbicides – organic or otherwise. Because the terrain here is so steep they carry the bananas down from the hills on their backs when they harvest.

The Cabrerea family joined El Guabo in 2003. Being part of the Association has given them year round income and security. Before then they we’re only able to rely on regular income for four months of the year during the cocoa harvest. Now, with the help of Fairtrade, things are much better. Anibul works at the EGASBP supporting other farmers showing them how to grow organic bananas and Noemi, Anibul’s daughter will be starting University in Marchala this year.

Now it’s time for some food… and a beautiful Ecuador sunset…More updates soon. Simon & Matt

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We’re going to El Guabo!

19 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News

Today Matt and Simon will be jumping on a plane to El Guabo, Ecuador. We want to show you first hand what makes All Good Fairtrade bananas so special and give you the chance to see what Fairtrade means to our friends in El Guabo who grow out bananas.

Simon has gone flash harry on us and produced a little video to tell you a bit about us and our trip. We’ll be keeping you up to date throughout the week so tune in to our El Guabo Adventures!

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Fairtrade Bananas reach the Mainland!

15 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

South Islanders have been calling for Fairtrade bananas since they arrived. Following the successful response so far in the North, we’ve decided to dip our toe in the water in the South Island to see how everything works down there too!

All going well, from Monday (19 April) All Good Bananas will go on trial in Fresh Choice Nelson, Mediterranean Kitchen Queenstown, Taste of Nature Dunedin and NW South City in Christchurch. (Sorry for you guys that went in this week… we’re a week late)

If you live in Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin or Queenstown, please pop into one of these stores to check out the bananas and buy some! South Islanders we’d love to hear what you think at info@allgoodbananas.co.nz. We love pictures too so don’t be shy.

All Good have set a target of selling 100,000 bunches by 1st May. If we hit this target we’ll be confident that Kiwis really want Fairtrade bananas and will be able to work even harder to make them available everywhere from Kaitaia right down to Stewart Island!

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Happy Birthday Ricky the Monkey!

08 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

Ricky the Monkey tucked into some bananas for his birthday yesterday. According to stuff.co.nz, bananas were top of the gift list when Ricky, Nelson’s special-needs capuchin monkey, celebrated his 17th birthday at the Natureland Zoo.

We just loved this cute pic of the Rickmeister! We hear he wanted Fairtrade bananas but we’re not in Nelson yet. We’re working on it for our little man down there. Maybe there will be a Fairtrade feast for his big 18th?

Check out the full story on www.stuff.co.nz

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Bananas are GO!

08 April 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

We’re back in stores after a little break! From now on we’ll be getting in a weekly supply of Fairtrade bananas from our friends at El Guabo so there will be a continuous supply – yay!! Get down to a store near you today to get some banana action pronto! Find a banana

Remember if you don’t have All Good bananas in your local store, but would like some… talk to your produce manager or independent grocer and ask them for Fairtrade bananas. If they get in touch with us we can hook them up. Or email us their details at info@allgoodbananas.co.nz and we’ll get in touch.

All you South Islanders out there, we’re working on you and will keep you posted soon!

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Banana Bounty from 8 April!

31 March 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

The news making us smile this week is that from next week (8 April), we’ll be getting in a regular supply of bananas each week. This is great news because our first few containers were only coming every 10 days so it meant you couldn’t always find them in store. Now, it’ll be seamless!

It also means we can help get them out to one and all. We know a lot of you have already been asking your local stores and produce managers for All Good Bananas and this really helps. What you can do:

• Buy them!!
• Have a chat to your local New World, Pak’nSave or Four Square produce manager and ask them to stock All Good Fairtrade bananas (if you live north of Taupo).
• Email or call: Foodstuffs and Progressive - customerinfo@progressive.co.nz - direct to ask them to stock Fairtrade bananas. They would love to hear from you

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The story of the Ecuadorian truck driver, a party and a boat…

29 March 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

There was a funny story. It involved an Ecuadorian truck driver who was charged with handling some very special cargo… a party… and a boat. After collecting a container of scrumptious All Good Fairtrade bananas from the good guys at El Guabo, our friend started on his journey. His mission: to get the ‘nanas safely to a big ship that would transport them across the Pacific Ocean to the little land of the long white cloud. Unfortunately the lure of a few bevies with his mates was too much to resist and a party ensued…(Ecuadorians are known for their parties) this turned into a bit of a bender and lo and behold…he literally missed the boat.*

What we’re trying to say is… there has been a bit of delay with our latest container of bananas and it means that there will be a bit of a break in supply. After this weekend, we won’t have bananas in stores for about 10 days. Bear with us though as from 8 April we’ll be back in full force!

*This is a true story but some details may have been embellished.

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2.7million banana muffins later…

29 March 2010 | Posted by simon in All Good News, General

A whopping 45,000 bunches of All Good Bananas have now made their way into Kiwi fruit bowls. We reckon that would make about 225,000 banana cakes and about 2.7 million banana muffins (probably mini ones). Aside from all the enjoyment we get from eating bananas, it means that we’re nearly half way to meeting our target of selling 100,000 bunches of Fairtrade bananas by the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight, 1 May. If we do, All Good Fairtrade Bananas will be a permanent feature in NZ!

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