FAIR TRADE BANANA PREMIUM IN ACTION-EVERY PURCHASE MATTERS
The staple Fairtrade Fruit, this week is all about Bananas! The U.S. is the largest importer of bananas and the demand for Organic Bananas only continues to grow. Here at Earl’s we support a better banana: we offer superior flavor, in-house conditioning to order, and daily photos so you can make the right choice.
But not all bananas are grown equally, nor are all farmworkers treated with respect and fair compensation despite their hard work. There’s an important story behind our bananas and the folks who grow them.
Coliman Fairtrade Bananas are grown in Colima, MX – Earl’s sent a cohort down to visit their groves and packing operation in March 2023. There is a staggering amount of work that goes into maintaining banana groves, harvesting, quality control, packing, shipping worldwide, and finally arriving on your shelves. Get ready to enhance your enthusiasm for Fairtrade!
Coliman is a family business: Mr. Jorge Aguilar Heredia founded Grupo AGALL-Coliman in Colima, MX over 60 years ago. His son Jorge Aguilar transitioned the banana farms to Certified Organic in 2010, and several of their farms became Fair Trade certified in 2014. His grandson Jorge Angel Aguilar Jr. now leads the company of over 2,000 employees with the values from the start: Coliman is dedicated to the mission of both environmental and social responsibility, aiming to nourish the world and create a better life for their employees.
It takes almost one year for each banana plant to produce a large bunch, which fills one banana box – and they’re grown on many acres to yield a substantial daily harvest and ship worldwide. The groves need constant maintenance to produce in an efficient manner, but the system is quite sustainable without many inputs: they compost old banana leaves, stalks, and fruit directly into the soil to return nutrients. The result is rich, fertile soil that can produce for many years to come.
Workers transplant banana plants to form new roots at the front of a line.
Farming organically creates extra challenges, but it fosters a healthier environment for workers and wildlife. Instead of using pesticides and fungicides, Coliman employs specialists and field maintenance crews to monitor the plants. They apply nutrients, remove any diseased foliage, and control pests with strong essential oils. They also regulate daily watering schedules to maintain the optimum level of moisture in the soil.
Bananas are susceptible to handling damage from the moment of harvest, and thus treated with care (just as they should be treated in the produce department!). Harvest crews hang bunches on lines and immediately spray the bananas with water to give a layer of protection from skinning, wash the fruit, and then cover bunches with bags to protect from the sun.
Quality control starts right away: after a thorough wash, QC checks the bunches for size, length, and maturity. They differentiate the bananas for various markets based on these factors, then cut the large bunches into smaller hands and place them in a chlorine bath. The rest is prepping bunches, thorough spot checks for pests that survived the wash, and packing into boxes for shipping. It takes an extensive team from start to finish to ensure high quality!
Once built, they send full pallets to a cooler right away to remove excess field heat and keep bananas at the stable temp of 56 degrees Fahrenheit for shipping. Earls currently brings in 2 truckloads per week, which equals 40 pallets or 1920 cases. This is approximately 76,800 lbs of bananas!
Coliman is dedicated to their craft, always seeking to improve in producing the highest quality bananas. But their mission to create a better life for their employees extends further.
Important context: despite the hard work of production, most Americans expect a very low cost on bananas. According to Fair Trade America: “Given the low price for bananas, producers have to focus on making a profit and often do not have the luxury to implement environmentally friendly practices. Local plants and animals, and their human neighbors in turn, are affected by pollution of water and land around farms, contributing to significant health issues.” Not to mention, very little pay for workers.
Fairtrade certification, by contrast, generates an immediate outcome for workers: to be certified, the grower must adhere to rigorous environmental and social standards. The Fairtrade Minimum Price for bananas ensures a higher return per box of bananas and encourages the farm to invest in better growing practices, and the newly instated Base Wage requires farms to pay workers at least 70% of their country’s living wage. On top of that, the Fairtrade Premium allows growers to plan projects that address their own community’s needs.
Coliman has been empowering workers and giving back to the community from the start. Don Jorge Aguilar Heredia co-founded the Food Bank of Hermosillo and was one of the main donors to the Food Bank Mexico network. His family founded the Don Jorge Aguilar Heredia Foundation after he passed in 2021: a non-profit dedicated to the education, health, and well-being of the communities surrounding Grupo AGALL-Coliman. Some of their innovative projects include: study scholarships, mentorships, and emotional training, health caravans for rural communities, and workshops on disease prevention. They also lead campaigns such as A Kilo that Feeds Smiles in collaboration with the Food Bank Mexico network, collecting over 6,000 pounds of food for donation to people in need.
Fairtrade Premium in Action!
Coliman workers as part of their two worker associations planned and funded the Don Jorge Aguilar Heredia Fairtrade Sociocultural Complex. Serving over 5,000 people, this center impacts the entire community. They have soccer and basketball activities, programs for literacy and computer education, mental health and nutrition, and the arts. Many workers have also received vouchers for school supplies, school shoes, and even computers for remote learning. This kind of development empowers employees to improve their own lives, and their futures.
Here’s where you come in – choosing to support banana producers with integrity is a decision with ripple effects. Together, we move the market toward one that demands care for the environment, and better treatment towards those who produce our food. Share this story with your customers and let them know that their purchases contribute to a stronger food system!