• “In my life, you know, I never thought that an organisation as important as Fairtrade could exist.  For us small producer, we are very committed to Fairtrade, we hope it will continue making progress; it is our means of survival  herein the Dominican Republic." 
• “We see Fairtrade as being part of a big family - it's something that came here to set our producers minds at rest - I think that something fair, Fairtrade, is something we should treasure and respect".

Jose Peralta, October 2006

Introduction

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Jose Miguel Peralta Castellano is a small-scale banana producer who lives with his wife and four daughters, aged 14 to 23. Three are studying at university and the other is still in high school. Jose farms around 8 hectares of organic certified bananas with a production of 180-185 boxes a week, each box weighing 18kg.

Background

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Jose joined ASOBANU, an organisation of small-scale banana producers, in 1999. He was treasurer for two years before being elected president in the summer of 2005. Membership of ASOBANU is very important to Jose and his fellow farmers: ‘We are very happy to be in the organisation, we love it like it’s our home, it’s like being part of a family. When we started out we were a little anxious, in these years we have worked very closely with all the members.’

ASOBANU was founded in 1998 and is based near the town of Batey Amina in the northwest of the Dominican Republic. It brings together small-scale farmers who don’t have the capacity to export on their own and who wouldn’t otherwise be able to participate in Fairtrade. Membership has grown from eight farmers at the beginning to 191 today, including 34 women. The group was Fairtrade certified in 2004 and 102 farms also have organic certification.

The organisation is in a depressed area of the country where the people endure much hardship and work almost entirely in agriculture. The main product is bananas, which has a long tradition here. The ability to own their own land and their own production is very important to farmers as it provides an income and reduces the need to migrate to the capital or abroad.

The average farm size is 6.4 hectares. Most farmers employ one or two permanent workers as well as temporary labour for the fortnightly harvest, working in the fields and packing house. In total, ASOBANU and its members employ over 200 permanent and over 1,500 temporary workers, mainly Haitian immigrants desperate for work. Production and exports vary according to weather conditions – in 2006 ASOBANU exported 24,500 tonnes of bananas of which 19,700 tonnes (80%) were sold to the Fairtrade market and around 20% of production is organic certified. Production was hit by severe tropical storms and flooding in October and December 2007.

Fairtrade: a growing solution

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Fairtrade certification has brought a new culture into agricultural production by introducing environmental and social standards that weren’t previously common practice. The members have made a strong commitment to improving conditions for their workers and to taking more care in the application of chemicals in order to protect the health of farmers and workers and avoid contaminating the environment.

Fairtrade has brought economic stability by providing the producers with access to a secure market, while ASOBANU supports the members by collecting their produce from the packing stations on their own farms and delivering it on their behalf to a central packing station operated by SAVID, the export company. And through Fairtrade ASOBANU is contributing to social projects which benefit members’ families and communities. Additional income has been invested in logistics, packing, office and transport; more staff have been employed, including two technicians and a book-keeper, and salaries have been considerably improved.

The decision by Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to switch all their bananas to Fairtrade was great news for Fairtrade banana farmers in the Dominican Republic and for others in Colombia and the Windward Islands. It means Fairtrade banana sales in the UK will grow to an estimated 195,000kg in 2008, around 25% of the total market. For Jose it means selling his bananas at the sustainable price of $6.00 a box – currently a dollar more than the conventional market price – a big difference if you are selling over 100 boxes. ASOBANU is paid $8.50 a box and deducts export and other operational costs before paying the farmers. The organisation receives an addition Fairtrade premium of $1.00 a box to invest in business and social projects agreed by the members.

Fairtrade for development

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In order to export bananas to European supermarkets, farmers must comply with increasingly demanding health and safety standards regulating the way bananas are grown, harvested and packed. ASOBANU has used the Fairtrade premium to renovate the packing stations on 70 farms to bring them up to these standards, and is currently working hard with another 25 farmers to achieve this.

In Batey Amina they have built a brand new dual-purpose basketball and volley ball court and helped renovate a baseball pitch. As farmer Aquilino Duran says: ‘Sport helps keep young people out of trouble.’ In Taitabon, a very poor town, they have built a new wing for a school so that it can take more students. They’ve helped with building repairs to other schools and donated a computer to the public university and photocopiers to several primary schools.

But there is still much to be done and the farmers have a growing list of plans for the Fairtrade premium. They want to improve farm roads, support more improvements to local schools, invest in a local maternity centre and fire station, and yet more sports facilities for young people. In addition, more farmers are working towards organic certification to increase their market options.

Fairtrade future

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Jose is optimistic that Fairtrade will continue to improve the lives of his members: ‘Our hope for the future is that we keep getting the Fairtrade premiums always, and that we’re able to keep moving forwards, that we have the strength to keep working the land, that we continue to meet all the requirements from your countries. Also we want to keep protecting the environment, and many other things that we’re working on.

‘A consumer who buys a Fairtrade banana knows that they are contributing to the life of a small producer here in the Dominican Republic, and what’s more, they are contributing to a whole lot of different causes and are supporting the health and wellbeing not just of the banana producers but their whole community.’

Where to buy Asobanu bananas

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You can buy ASOBANU bananas from a number of leading supermarket chains including Sainsbury’s and the Co-op.

As well as the Dominican Republic, Fairtrade bananas are supplied by certified producer groups in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Peru, and the Windward Islands. Fairtrade bananas are also stocked by Asda, Marks & Spencer, Somerfield, Spar, Tesco, Waitrose, Whole Foods Market, and other independent outlets.