A delegation from Britain and Ireland leaves for Costa Rica on Wednesday (March 24) to visit banana plantations where owners, faced with declining revenues, are reported to have slashed wages by up to 40 per cent and axed 11,000 jobs in the last three years.
The GMB, Britain's general union, claims that plantation owners have ignored local labour laws to raise productivity levels, and "mounted a ferocious attack on the trade unions which try to defend workers' rights".
Nearly one in four bananas sold in the UK is sourced from Costa Rica and the GMB claims that reports say retailers are "using their monopoly position to force their purchase price down so that they can sustain a price war". The price for a kilo of loose fruit has dropped from an average of £1.08 to 74p in less than two years.
The delegation will investigate reports alleging "the destruction of the environment and brutal exploitation of workers to provide bloated profits for retailers" and "the use of noxious substances in the production process".
The findings of the delegation will be published later this year.
