Ueberwinden

I had been reading about the stories published by the Cincinnati Enquier that exposed Chiquitas practices on their South American plantations. This report happened in the late 1990's, can anyone in thses regions say if these practices continue, or has the exposure helped to better the living and working conditions for those who grow the world bananas? I hate to hear about these types of abuses on those who are trying to provide for their families in an honest means.

Michael

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White Horticulture
Rare, Tropical, Unique

Bob

Seems some things never change. In this case for over a century. If anything they've probably gotten a little better! There are a couple of informative, brilliant, well written and thought provoking articles (I wrote them) about them in Bananas Quarterly concerning United Fruit (now Chiquita brands). Dan Koeppel's "Banana: Fate of the fruit that changed the world" is a good source of info on this. A great one is Thomas McCann's "An American Company:The tragedy of United Fruit" written by an insider and chronicles many things unknown to most of the public.

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island cassie

And it continues......

From the Daily Telegraph in the UK regarding EU negotiations - this will no doubt be bad news for us here in the Dominican Republic!

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An agreement, which could come as early as this week, would end the so-called 'banana wars' - the world's longest-running trade dispute.

It would also bolster the World Trade Organisation, whose Doha negotiations to free up global commerce have at times been held hostage by the row.


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Bananas turn bright blue under ultra-violet light helping animals pick ripe ones "We are in the closing stages of what could be the end of this long dispute," Baroness Ashton told Reuters on Wednesday on the sidelines of an EU-Russia summit in Stockholm.

"I think it will be later this week or early next week.

The decades-old dispute with exporters in Latin America is over their complaint they pay higher tariffs than African, Caribbean and Pacific rivals to sell bananas in Europe.

A deal, which should be sealed before the WTO's ministerial conference starting on Nov 30, would see the EU steadily cutting tariffs on bananas for suppliers in Latin America and elsewhere.

It is likely to reduce prices for consumers, bolstering competition and strengthening the hand of low-cost Latin American exporters.

It will help companies like Chiquita and Dole, US distributors of the region's bananas.