How Fairtrade makes better bananas…
Tomorrow is the next harvest at Vicente Matute and his wife Ana’s banana farm. Each week Vicente, Ana, their two older sons and members from the Fairtrade farmers co-operative El Guabo, process over 240 boxes of Fairtrade bananas from Vicente’s four hectares of land.
These quality Fairtrade bananas end up in fruit bowls throughout the country for you to enjoy.
Vicente and Ana have both lived on this banana farm for all of their life, but things haven’t always been so plentiful: “In former times I was employed by a very large banana farm in administration because before we joined El Guabo our farm was not worth the effort. We had a very low production of 15 to 18 boxes per hectare.”
“Now thanks to El Guabo my life has improved in so many ways”
Since joining El Guabo things have changed significantly. “Now thanks to El Guabo my life has improved in so many ways. Now the number of bananas I produce has tripled because of all the benefits we receive from being members of El Guabo. Now I produce 40 to 60 boxes per hectare. Using my 4 hectares of bananas I can now have a stable life.”
Vicente’s banana production has increased three fold due to the benefits that El Guabo offers to its members. “We have improved in so many senses. We have technical support, we have economic incentives, we have a number of other things too through working together as a group.” These benefits are because each banana farmer has a say in where the banana co-operative’s money is spent.
Above all, Vicente believes one of the best things from joining El Guabo is the way he now treats his farm. “Now we use good agriculture practises, we know how to manage our farms better, we use the least chemicals possible and care for the environment and the workers also.”
These better practices have definitely paid off. It usually takes about two banana hands (a giant bunch from which 8 bunches of bananas can be harvested) to fill a banana box, but Vicente is able to stretch his bananas much further – “In my case I produce 240 boxes, using one hand in each box simply because of the quality of my fruit and also because my fruit is heavy.”
Things have changed significantly for Vicente and his family. With each harvest of bananas they receive a fair and stable price for their bananas, which enables them to have a better life: “We are not rich but with the money from Fairtrade we can live a good life and we can do some extra things and this is thanks to working together through Fairtrade.”
With tomorrow’s harvest, and every harvest after, Vicente will try his hardest to provide quality bananas, but also asks for your help. “We are willing to keep working in the same way and improve on our quality, but all this depends also on the people like you that keep buying our bananas – people that favour Fairtrade”.
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 Vicente and Ana.
