Eloy Morena lives in Arenilla in Ecuador and has recently joined the El Guabo banana cooperative:
“My name is Eloy Moreno. I have been a banana farmer for 20 years. My father is also a banana farmer and he has another small farm of 10 hectares. Growing bananas is a tradition”
“We have received a fair price and stable working conditions… this has improved our quality of life. For this I am very thankful to Fairtrade.”
“Since we began giving our bananas to the El Guabo banana association, we have received a fair price and stable working conditions – our harvest and the infrastructure has improved because of this fair price and El Guabo take all of our production from both my father and my farm. This has improved our quality of life. For this I am very thankful to Fairtrade”
Since joining El Guabo in 2007 Eloy has enjoyed being involved in the decision making of the association. Two times a year all the farmers who are members of El Guabo meet for a general assembly. At this assembly the co-operative make decisions on where their profits and social premium should be invested and each farmer is able to express their opinion.
One project Eloy would like to see in the next year is the construction of a warehouse for banana box storage closer to his farm. He currently picks extra boxes up from El Guabo, a one and a half hour drive away from Arenilla. If a storage facility was close by he wouldn’t have to travel so far – it’s a long way to travel if you happen to be missing 20 boxes! These and other development are made possible under Fairtrade.
Under Fairtrade El Guabo receives a social premium, in addition to the fair price the farmer already receives. El Guabo have decided to allocate 20% of this to technical improvements such as building infrastructure to support the farmers and the remaining 80% is channeled towards social and environmental programmes such as school fees, childcare, health and social insurance.
During his time with El Guabo Eloy has also learnt a lot about social security and workers’ right and has been able to put processes in place to ensure a safe and fair work place according to Fairtrade standards. At Eloy’s farm each worker has their own protection equipment and far fewer pesticides are used in the production of the bananas.
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 Eloy and his workers.
