How Ecuadorian companies, government are helping family farms
All Good Fairtrade, a banana company in southwestern Ecuador, sources its bananas from 430 family farms in the El Guabo Cooperative. The collective boasts a product that is good聽. Family farmers are given a fair and stable price for their product. Fairtrade uses organic fertilizer, and the cooperative prohibits the use of 120 agrochemicals that are typically used in fruit production.
Ecuador supplies聽聽of the total volume of bananas traded in the world, and the banana sector makes up nearly聽聽of the country鈥檚 agricultural GDP. While Dole Ubesa, Dole鈥檚 Ecuadorian subsidiary, supplies one out of every聽聽exported bananas, the conglomerate banana exporters are less active in Ecuador than in some of the country鈥檚 neighbors.聽聽has found cheaper production options in Costa Rica, while聽聽has taken over sales operations in Mozambique. In fact, despite being the world鈥檚 main supplier of bananas, Ecuadorian farmers produce聽聽boxes/hectare/year聽compared to Guatemalan and Philippine farmers, who produce聽听产辞虫别蝉/丑别肠迟补谤别/测别补谤.
This dip in yield is a result of the Ecuador鈥檚 progressive treatment of those involved in the banana trade. Political support for smallholder Ecuadorian farmers creates an environment where organic, fair trade, and humane producers like All Good Fairtrade are more likely to succeed. Ecuador鈥檚 Banana Act聽聽鈥渢he minimum support price must cover the average cost plus a reasonable profit.鈥� Companies like All Good are able to provide quality throughout the production process鈥攁nd offer workers more than the聽聽average pay for banana farmworkers.聽
Ethisphere Institute, a New York-based research center promoting better business practice, has named All Good to their annual World鈥檚 Most Ethical Companies聽.
The United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) to highlight the importance of family and smallholder farmers. Food Tank is partnering with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to commemorate IYFF, and will feature weekly posts and other media highlighting the innovations that family farmers are using to alleviate hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation, along with the campaigns and policies that support them.
