Several of Germany’s largest grocery retail groups have rejected claims made by Oxfam of violations of workers’ rights in the Ecuador banana industry, arguing that “all relevant standards” are demanded from suppliers.
In its ‘Bitter Bananas’ report, Oxfam Germany heavily criticised the five leading food retail operators in the country – Edeka, Rewe, Aldi, Lidl and Metro – claiming it had uncovered “massive violations” of labour rights at Ecuadorian banana plantations supplying the companies.
Suppliers singled out for criticism included US multinational Dole, as well as major Ecuadorian banana exporters Noboa and Reybanpac.
In the study, the charity accused the German retailers of appearing to be only interested in the good quality and price of the products, but not in the social and environmental aspects of banana production in Ecuador.
However, Metro hit back at the accusations, claiming it did “not tolerate forced labour, child labour or any kind of exploitation by any of its suppliers”, arguing that this policy formed an integral part of its purchasing decisions.
“Metro Group only sources bananas from internationally acknowledged brand suppliers such as Dole Fresh Fruit Europe OHG,” the company said.
However, the retailer said that for “easily comparable” food products, such as bananas, German consumers were “generally highly sensitive to prices”.
Reproaches ‘untrue’
Fellow German retailer Rewe told Eurofruit Magazine that the “only about 5 per cent” of the total volume of bananas sold by the company were sourced from Ecuador.
“In the countries from which we buy large quantities of bananas – such as Columbia – we already ensure that all bananas procured for our private label brand ‘Rewe’ are produced according to the standards required for SA 8000 certification, which places high labour and social demands on producers,” said a Rewe spokesman.
Similarly, Edeka said that although its proportion of Ecuador’s total banana export volume was “definitely less than 1 per cent”, it was “well aware of its responsibility to help improve the working conditions in supplier countries on a permanent basis”.
For this reason, the company said it was supporting “all relevant standards” so that “the situation in the production countries can be improved”.
An Edeka spokesperson said: “In contrast to the discount sector, Edeka offers at least six different banana segments for sale, among them not only bananas in the low-price segment but also organic bananas, high quality bananas under the private label Edeka Selection, and also baby bananas.
“The customer can choose from this varied offer at different quality and price levels. Therefore, pricing of our products is not exclusively orientated towards prices in the discount sector. Thus, Oxfam’s reproaches do not hold true.”
For its part, a spokesperson for Dole Fresh Fruit Europe said that the company had received a copy of Oxfam’s report and would be meeting with the organisation before the end of January before issuing a response.
