Regina is from Dominica, one of the chain of islands in the Caribbean that make up the Windward Islands. Aged 43, she is the single parent of five children between 16 and 26 years of age and has eight grandchildren. Two of her daughters and their five school-age children live with her. Educational and employment opportunities are limited in her community but Regina’s 18-year-old daughter is studying history and herbal medicine at college and is optimistic that she will be able to get a scholarship to continue her education at university.

Regina is a member of the indigenous Carib people whose ancestors arrived by canoe from South America 1,000 years ago and now number 5,000 among the island’s 73,000 population. She lives in the Carib Territory in the east of Dominica, a 3,700-acre reserve owned by the Carib people. Regina is an active member of her community and of her local Fairtrade Group which she previously served as treasurer and representative to the National Fairtrade Committee.

Regina is skilled in the traditional Carib handicraft of basket weaving which supplements her income. She has passed her skills on to her two daughters who work as self-employed artisans, selling their baskets to tourists from Carib handicrafts shops.

Regina’s 2.5 acre (I hectare) farm is a ten-minute walk from her home. She grows a variety of crops planted between her banana trees for family consumption and for sale to local and regional markets. Hot peppers are sold to two large spice companies, traders buy her yams and tania, another root crop, and cabbages and lettuces are sold locally.

Following Fairtrade certification in 2000, Fairtrade Group members have been encouraged to plant a variety of trees in buffer zones on the edges of their fields to help protect their banana trees during the hurricane season. Regina has planted a selection of fruit trees including grapefruit, oranges, coconut palms and carambula, as well as several native tree species which command a good price for their timber. Regina has never used chemicals on her farm because she believes they are a health hazard and are contrary to the Carib tradition of respecting the natural environment. The grass in the buffer zones is regularly mowed and the cuttings added to Regina’s compost heap of decomposed foliage and rejected bananas. This organic fertilizer is used to supplement NPK¹ applications and enrich the soil around the plants in her banana fields.

Bananas are by far the most important crop for Regina and provide 70% of her cash income. But growing them has become an increasingly precarious occupation in recent years and their unpredictable future will be decided by events beyond her control.

In the last 15 years the Windward Islands’ share of the UK banana market has shrunk from 60% to less than 20% as a result of falling retail prices and increased competition from lower-cost, less environmentally friendly Latin American producers. The disastrous consequences for Dominica include a fall in annual revenues from US$32m to US$5.3m and a decline in the number of growers from 11,000 to just 700 in 2003. And new EU regulations due at the end of 2005 could sound the death knell of the Caribbean banana industry.

For more than 30 years, the EU has given preferential market access to banana imports from former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific region (APC) through a system of quotas and tariffs. Following successful US-backed complaints at the WTO that this system discriminated against Latin American producers, the EU agreed in 2001 to abolish quotas and adopt a single tariff system by 1 January 2006.

While ACP producers will initially be exempt from the tariff, Caribbean producers are deeply concerned that the proposed rate of €230 a tonne is too low to make up for the price difference between Caribbean bananas and the cheaper ‘dollar bananas' from Latin American plantations which would then swamp European markets. Campaigners are hopeful that the International Banana Conference in April 2005 will secure a commitment to an EU import regime which promotes sustainable production and enables small-scale banana farmers to continue to participate in world trade².

The one ray of hope for Dominican banana growers has been the six-fold growth in exports of Fairtrade bananas since their inception there in 2000. They now account for 71% of the island’s production and have encouraged at least 300 farmers back to the industry. Regina produces 35 boxes of bananas every two weeks for export to the UK. For the first few years, Regina and the other Fairtrade certified banana growers only sold a part of their crop to Fairtrade buyers. But thanks to the growing demand from British consumers, they now sell their entire crop on Fairtrade terms: ‘The advantage I see in Fairtrade is that I don’t have to use chemicals, which is good for my health, and a healthy environment. It helps to pay the bills and send my children to school; I am getting more for my bananas now.’

As well as a higher price, farmers’ groups receive a premium³ to invest in business and community improvements. The premium committee, elected by farmers, has used the extra money to purchase four computers, a photocopier and furniture for local schools; a community centre has been built and street lighting installed for the first time in Castle Bruce; bush cutters have been bought to replace chemical weed control; an office has been built for regular Fairtrade Group meetings; and the purchase of a lawn mower means youngsters can now take part in football, cricket and rounders leagues on a once-overgrown sports ground.
Regina harvests her bananas every two weeks with the help of two employees. The bananas are cut, washed, sorted, bagged and labelled in the packhouse on her farm, ready for export. This operation has to be carried out to EurepGap standards⁴ now demanded by leading European retailers. Members of the Carib Territory Fairtrade Group received financial help from the premium fund to help with improvements needed to gain EurepGap certification. Regina has upgraded her packhouse with a clean water washing system, installed hand washing facilities, bought protective clothing and built a pit toilet flushed by rainwater collected in a tub.

The premium has also been used to repair or improve farm access roads, making life easier for all local farmers. Collection lorries can now drive right up to Regina’s packhouse on harvest days so she no longer has to carry her bananas on her head for half a mile to the main road or make the same journey to collect water for her packing operation from the roadside standpipe.
The government is constructing a new small hospital for the area, made possible by local community organisations agreeing to part-fund the project. The Fairtrade Group originally pledged EC$5,000; then in February 2005 they reviewed it in the light of increased premiums earned from Fairtrade sales and took the decision to double their contribution to EC$10,000.

Their ambitious plans for the future include building a resource centre where youngsters can receive computer training and learn trades like plumbing, carpentry, mechanics, home economics and sewing to improve their employment prospects.

Regina is one of the suppliers of the first Fairtrade coconuts from the Windwards which were launched in Sainsbury’s at the end of 2004. She supplies around 100 coconuts a week for EC$0.38 each, compared to EC$0.15 on the local market. Simeon Greene is Relationship Director of Windwards Bananas, the company which markets Windwards bananas in the UK. He says, “Now we are successfully bringing coconuts over, we can go ahead with Fairtrade mangoes and maybe in the future we will have a whole cluster of Fairtrade produce in the UK market.”

Windward Islands Fairtrade bananas are available at Asda, the Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose, and Fairtrade coconuts at Sainsbury’s. 

[ ¹ ] Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.
[ ² ] Details at www.ibc2.org
[ ³ ] The Fairtrade minimum price is US$5.75 per 18.14kg box plus a social premium of US$1.75.
[ ⁴ ] http://www.eurep.org/Languages/English/index_html


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