Bananas (Blog #7)

When you're walking down the grocery store, you don't generally think of the journey that the product right in front of you has taken to get there. Consumers tend to think that the store generates the items that it sells. Take bananas for example, they aren't grown in the US much, only in Hawaii and in very small amounts. For the majority, bananas are grown in humid, tropic areas, mainly in South and Southeast Asia on plantations. Some plantations pick, package, and ship the bananas to markets firsthand, but for the majority the bananas are bought from third parties extremely cheap and distributed to other companies and markets for a huge profit. About half of the countries in the world even have the capability of growing bananas, while very few can grow them in large quantities, due to the necessary growing conditions. This forces globalization between Southern Asia and the countries that want bananas on the menu. Countries like Nicaragua and Ecuador rely on their banana exports to feed their economy. They need countries like North America and Canada to import bananas from them to turn profits. Bananas are a specialization crop, and can produce a large profit. So companies buy them from the countries that grow them at cheap prices, then sell them back to markets at an inflated price.
This is explained in Patel's hourglass model. It is explained that the smallest amount of people (the big companies) control the majority of the prices and fate of products. They go through a series of separate buyers, each turning a small profit until the large company that has the brand name, sells the banana for the largest profit.

http://youtu.be/piC8qTSNtSs

Conditions in the banana plantations are very labor intensive with workers usually working around 10-12 hours a day in grueling heat for less than 1% of the final selling price of bananas for a days work. Adding to the list of poor work conditions, workers have no job security, often being hired on a 3-6 month only basis. In markets right now bananas cost on average 99 cents a pound. That doesn't seem a lot does it? Let's put it into perspective for you. Workers each get paid 75 cordoba (Nicaragua) in Nicaragua, which equates to to $3.27. That's for one day of work. The average wages for a worker are $5.50 a day, but only for 3-6 months of the year. Many companies don't own the plantations directly, but still run them. They do this so they aren't held accountable for the treatment of their workers and therefore can feign ignorance when questioned about it.

Understanding the origins of the banana is important when considering food justice. The majority of a country decided that a particular fruit is so important, that they would subject their fellow human beings to such haggard conditions to produce it for them. That really says a lot about people I think. Sure it's easy to say "Don't eat bananas, buy fair trade". But I'm not giving a blanket statement quite like that. Knowing of the conditions is important because as a consumer you are at least aware of the problems associated with it, that you can become a part of something to change the conditions.
 Food security plays into this situation as well. Banana exporting countries rely on the security of being able to sell their bananas to keep their economy floating. Without the security of these exports, their economy would be in trouble and have a hard time keeping it together.