ALTERNATIVE BANANA TRADE - PIONEERS IN A NICHE MARKET

Rudi Pfeifer - BanaFair e.V.

BanaFair sees itself as a politically orientated development NGO, which works mainly in the following sectors: we concentrate on raising public awareness and lobbying. These are concerned with production and marketing conditions of bananas, we also financially promote projects of partner organisations in banana producing countries, which aim at changes in the social, ecological, economic and political fields, and work in accordance with the principle of comprehensive sustainability, and we offer interested consumers in co-operation with small scale producers an alternative product via Fair Trade.

In the past few years "Fair Trade" has developed as an interesting model for a sustainable pattern of consumption. Especially in the Northern European Countries it is nowadays promoted by relevant social and political groups and is also broadly accepted by consumers, at least as far as one can rely on surveys. Fair - Trade - Labels are very well-known in the individual countries. However, the number of people who know about these labels by far exceeds the number of those who actually buy them. This is why we can generally still speak of a niche market.

In contrast to the "bio" sector, which is not only regulated by the international umbrella organisation IFOAM, but also by a legally binding EU regulation, there is still no clear and comprehensive definition for "Fair Trade". However, two mayor directions can be distinguished:

• on the one hand there is the "traditional" sector of "alternative trade", which is a broad movement in many, especially European countries, which is characterised by the idealistic engagement of hundreds of thousands of people. The products are sold via so-called " Third ( or One) World Shops", solidarity groups and church parishes, and the selling is accompanied by the provision of information in order to raise the consumers' awareness;
• on the other hand there is the intention of offering "Fair Trade" Products in strictly commercial orientated structures such as supermarkets in order to reach a bigger group of consumers. This is what the "Fair Trade Label-Organisation" (FLO) stands for.

The FLO is dealt with in the next talk, so I will not go further into detail about the subject. I would only like to say one thing: BanaFair promotes the concept of labelling, despite some very divergent views as far as the realisation of the idea is concerned, a point where we share the justified criticism of many organisations from the South. So we rather perceive ourselves as part of the alternative sector, which with is networking with solidarity work, forms the root of our organisation.
BanaFair is a rather small organisation in the alternative sector. We have 8 staff members for the three fields mentioned above. At the moment we sell about 700 boxes of bananas per week, exclusively in an alternative environment, such as "Third Word Shops", consumer associations and church groups. Up to 1993 our bananas came from Nicaragua and, since we were amongst the first who actually started out on Fair Trade with bananas - together with Oxfam Wereldwinkels in Belgium and gebana in Switzerland - the word pioneer is really applicable. Since 1994 we have been supplied with bananas by a group of private producers in Costa Rica. However, this co-operation will soon be ended, since we see no further opportunities for the realization of common aims. Therefore, in a few weeks time we will market bananas from the small plantations associations UROCAL from Ecuador and WINFA from the Caribbean. Additionally, we are expecting the first trial consignment of organic bananas from small plantations from the Talamanca region, Costa Rica. We see our new relationships as a challenge, in order to test and widen the limits of our "niche market".During the course of our work we have developed five principals for the alternative banana trade:

1. Social and ecological minimum standards for the production

In this point there will certainly be the broadest consensus with the Label-Organisations, since within EUROBAN we participated in the development of the criteria which now form the basis for the FLO.

Nevertheless, I would like to make two comments on this point:

1. These criteria are not the "Ten Commandments", written in stone for eternity. Criteria always stand for the current status quo in a discussion; in this case about social, ecological, economic and political questions and it is the status quo of where they are developed, which means in the North. Only in an ideal case are these criteria convergent with the ideas of development of the those in the South, who should be supported by Fair Trade.
   The fact that the demands on these criteria are subject to change has also become evident to BanaFair.
   Back in 1986, when we began selling alternatively traded bananas from Nicaragua, ecological criteria were very marginal. Then the whole thing was about the fight for the economic surviving of the country, job security for the workers, the guarantee of their right to play a role in decision making processes and possibilities to enhance the number of basic food stuffs available to them. Nowadays a fair or alternatively traded banana without an ecological component would be unthinkable. Since monitored bio-production in the banana sector will only be possible in individual cases, one should at least aim at a drastic reduction of pesticides.
2. One principle of alternative trade is that criteria need not only be defined for the producers, but that the whole trade-chain has to be subject to ethical demands. Demands such as for a democratic organisation, the possibility to influence the decision making processes, orientation towards the best for all also need to be applied to the alternative enterprises.

2. marketing independent of multi-nationals

Eduardo Galeano speaks of the "bananisation of Central America" and means the degradation of a whole region to so-called "Banana-Republics": the fact that economic and political structures are completely dominated by the interests of trans-nationals. "Vertical Integration" and "externalisation of costs" are the magic words which led to the success of a handful of multinationals, which have nearly a monopoly on production and marketing. Only a small percentage of what people usually pay here for bananas flows back to the producer countries. The price for our cheap bananas is paid by the workers on the plantations, with low wages, working conditions that present a risk to their health and pollution of their environment.

I am convinced that the Fair - Trade - philosophy alone cannot fight the transnationals. Other instruments need to be employed: the promotion of the unions' fight for the respect of their rights, as they are laid down, for instance, in core conventions of the ILO; the establishment of instruments to influence trade, e.g. in the form of voluntary codes of conduct or internationally binding social- and environmental regulations.

Fair Trade is an offer to small and medium-sized national producers, which produce in a socially and environmentally sustainable way and try to fight the overall power of the multinationals. Fair Trade with banana-multinationals is unthinkable for me. This is certainly also an ideological position, but that does not make it a wrong position.

3. a stable minimum price that covers the production-costs and long-term cooperation

For the producers this is certainly one of the most important points, however for the alternative trade organisations it is one of the most difficult issues: what is a fair price? The existing official FOB prices for the individual countries only offer a vague orientation. And in the end they only reflect the existing production conditions with their negative consequences that all of us here know about. A fair price needs to be developed from the very basis: it must cover the actual production costs, guarantee an appropriate wage plus social security, allow for an ecologisation of the production and leave scope for further joint action (such as organisation, qualification measures, etc.) We are convinced that: the better price paid for producers who are "faithful" to the criteria has to show its effect in the consumer price. The consumer has to pay for the "ethical value added". There is no Fair Trade for free, for none of those who participate in it.

4. a higher price in order to finance projects

This, once again, has something to do with the "niche market": whether alternative trade in Third World Shops or with a label in the supermarket - "Fair Trade" has its limits. On the one hand there are the characteristics of the market which limit access to "Fair Trade" on the producer side, one the other it is often rather due to chance than to an objective strategy of equal opportunities as to who the producers are who finally obtain the advantages of Fair Trade. And additionally, a higher price paid to the producer does not necessarily guarantee that the workers paid by him really benefit from it.

The banana-issues has to be understood as a structural problem, which can only be solved by the co-operation of many different initiatives. Take Costa Rica for example: the main problem in its banana sector is the disrespect of basic worker's rights and the devastating damage to the environment due to the banana industry (compare the report carried out by Foro Emaús: Bananas para el mundo - los daños para Costa Rica, 1997). Fair Trade with Finca Baltimore, as practised by BanaFair in the past, or with Coopetrabasur, as practised by Agrofair, only makes a very small difference.

One of the central features of BanaFair's work becomes evident in this context: The aim is not the exclusive promotion of a few selected producers, but a sustainable structural change in the banana industry in the long run. An aim which can only be achieved through the co-operation of many actors. Thus, the higher price must also promote projects of other organisations in the production context: such as social initiatives, environmental groups, women's organisations, church groups, small scale producers and above all the unions.

Just to name a few examples:

From 1986 to 1993 BanaFair has (together with our sister-organisation gebana, Switzerland) invested over half a million German marks in various social projects in the banana region of Nicaragua and promoted the work of the union ATC. From 1994 it provided nearly the same amount of money for projects in Costa Rica, above all for a fond for small projects of a Costarican NGO and for the unions, in this case for the work of the Coordinadora de Sindicatos Bananeros. We additionally were able to sponsor projects of Colombian and Honduranian unions. So far these projects were financed exclusively through the higher price paid for bananas traded by us or gebana, Switzerland. So you see, even in a niche like ours one can do things.

5. raising consumer's awareness as we market our bananas

BanaFair works by setting examples. Alternative Trade is part of a development-political information approach which aims at increasing awareness among the consumers. It is our task to make consumers interested in questions which, under other circumstances, they would never ask themselves (i.e. about the production and marketing conditions of bananas).

This is also about questioning traditional consumption patterns and changing the meaning of the term "quality": from the expectation of a 'cosmetic' banana to a fruit which from its appearance can be recognised as a banana with 'internal values', produced in a social and environmentally sustainable way. Certainly this kind of marketing reaches less people than a marketing which is only orientated at mere selling. This is also one of the factors which constitute a niche. But alternative trade also has an important political component; dealing with the EU-banana market regulation plays a central role in the work of BanaFair.

The connection between alternative trade and at the same time raising consumers awareness and develpment-political project work in the individual countries has always been the main concept of BanaFair. We certainly were not the ones to introduce this dimension into alternative trade, but we abide by it.

The fact that the "musa paradisiaca" actually does not come from paradise might sound profane, but it is important to realise. On the way towards a sustainable banana-economy a lot of work still awaits all of us. In the best sense of the word it is about development processes, in which cooperation in solidarity aims at changes to be achieved in the long run.

Also in the future nobody can expect the miracle that instantaneously something good should happen once you bite into a fair banana.

However, understood as an alliance between critical consumers and organisations of banana workers and small producers, "Fair" and alternative trade are, at least, a step in the direction of trying to make conditions a little more just, a step that is worth the effort.