Anibal Aponte Aponte – Now getting a fair deal

Anibal has been growing bananas for nearly three decades. When he first purchased his land it was overgrown and wild. There was no water on his property. His neighbours in the bordering country of Peru would take all the water to irrigate their land from the nearby water sources, leaving Anibal with no water on his property:

“I almost decided to leave because there was not enough water, but then my bananas started to produce and I decided to stay and build my own homemade well. That was the beginning of what you can see now at my farm. Step by step I was recovering the farm and replanting. After some time I built a better well to take out more water. In the beginning things were very difficult, but now it is much better.”

“At the cashier they gave us the official price for our bananas, but then before leaving the building we had to give back money to someone who was waiting at the door.”

Anibal used to sell his bananas to intermediaries that were part of a big banana company. However, he always encountered many problems: “When it was time to collect the money for the harvest we went to the office to get our cheque. At the cashier they gave us the official price for our bananas, but then before leaving the building we had to give back money to someone who was waiting at the door. It was such a joke. I was struggling and decided to move to another intermediary, but they were just the same.”

In the absence of Fairtrade, growers sold their bananas through intermediaries; a system that often meant payment was too low to cover basic costs, making fair wages impossible.

Over the past few years, life has been considerably different for Anibal as a banana grower. In 2008 Anibal joined El Guabo, a Fairtrade banana growers’ co-operative. Fairtrade has meant a guaranteed fair wage and long-term supply contract.

“I heard that El Guabo were starting a group in my town and I decided to join them. I know that El Guabo is a serious company and they pay a fair price according to the law. Now I am happy that I am a member of El Guabo and can see the difference it makes and how serious they are about helping their producers.”

Today El Guabo works with over 450 banana farmers and their families in Ecuador. They are now able to manage their own exports, have quality monitoring systems in place and have much improved living and working conditions.

Through buying All Good Bananas, you support the growers and their families to have better lives, while you get to enjoy their quality bananas. These bananas are good for the producers, good for the land and good for you.

Thanks to you, things are “All Good” for Anibal and his family.