Frequently Asked Questions
If you can’t find an answer to your question about All Good Fairtrade bananas please send us an email and we’ll do our best to answer it.
What does Fairtrade mean?
The majority of small producers in third world countries don’t get a fair price for their goods, as a result workers are often left with not enough to live on and support their families.
Fairtrade benefits producers by offering a fair and stable price for their bananas as well as an additional Fairtrade social premium. This premium is then invested back into the community to improve living and working conditions. Kind of makes you think there should be a lot more Fairtrade products out there right? We’re working on it.
Who is ‘All Good’?
We’re a company dedicated to only trading in the good stuff. All our products are certified Fairtrade and/or certified organic products. We make sure that when you purchase an All Good product you’re not only buying highly nutritional food, but food that has been ethically produced and farmed in a sustainable manner. Yay.
Where do these All Good Fairtrade bananas come from?
All of the bananas you buy from supermarkets are imported. Our Fairtrade bananas come from a cooperative called El Guabo in Ecuador. El Guabo represents growers from 430 family farms in 15 different communities.
So I’m paying a bit extra for this banana, what’s the money being spent on?
On average you’ll pay $2.99 for a normal bunch, or you can pay $3.99 for an All Good extraordinary bunch. When you buy one you’re instantly helping to provide things like, free medical care, food baskets, and improved access to education for workers and families. Some parents are even sending their children to college for the first time! And that’s just the start of the impact our bananas have.
Are your bananas sprayed?
You know it’s hard to find a banana that hasn’t been sprayed but we’re doing our best to fix this.
Our growers are certified by The Fairtrade Labelling Organisation who prohibit the use of harmful fungicides and pesticides like Paraquat, DBCP and Terbufos – all commonly used in conventional banana production. All of these, and the rest of a much longer list, have been eliminated from the production of the bananas grown for us in El Guabo, Ecuador. You can check the list here.
Occasionally bananas are fumigated by our Kiwi MAF inspectors when they arrive in the country. We are trying to eliminate the need for this by working closely with MAF and using new packing and shipping techniques that eliminate the need for fumigation, but we can’t always guarantee it. Rather than operate a cold war, neither-confirm-nor-deny policy we’ll let stores know when our bananas get through without being spritzed for bugs.
No ‘harmful chemicals’? What kind of chemicals?
Same answer as above – you’ll find no paraquat, DBCP or terbufos or any harmful pesticides that are commonly used when growing bananas. We’ve gotten rid of the lot!
We don’t have full organic certification just yet, but it’s our ultimate goal. We’re working hard on this and already use all organic fertilisers and have eliminated genetically modified organisms.
Hey, but why the tape?
Yes, our banana bunches do have tape around them for now. As the underdog entering the market we have to clearly identify our bananas from others, as only the biggest banana supplier to each supermarket is allowed to display their bananas unwrapped and/or loose.
So here’s the deal, if we can get demand for Fairtrade bananas to be bigger than any other banana at your local supermarket then we can sell by the banana rather than the bunch!
Lets do it.
