On our way to Ghana’s Fairtrade banana plantation we noticed a group of market stall holders at the side of the road. We stopped and approached them. The people at the roadside were so poor their desperation was obvious. “Can I have your watch?” someone asked me. Then “can I have your jacket?” And then even, “can you take my children back to England?” I felt awful. I had never known anyone to plead with me like that before. I felt powerless as I was unable to help them all and was very saddened that their poverty had caused them to beg. I felt so embarrassed about the divide between us.
We arrived at the Volta River Estates Ltd (VREL) banana plantation to a different sound. The young boys drumming and the young girls dancing to welcome us to their “Oké banana community” had no need to ask for charity. They were proof of what a chance can give people, young and old. It was quite a moment to see the smiles on their faces portraying a level of pride you don’t see when people are not given an opportunity to work themselves out of poverty and have to depend upon handouts. They were joyous for what Fairtrade had done for them. They held their heads up high.
This was my first trip to a banana plantation and I expected to find banana trees in a regimented form with dusty ground beneath. To my surprise the farms looked very natural. There were lots of other plants surrounding the banana trees - natural bark and leaves on the ground were enriching the soil while butterflies flew around. This was biodiversity. It felt, literally, down to earth.
In a banana plantation which uses lots of chemicals I’m sure I would have found no wildlife and no other greenery but here I was, right in the thick of nature.
Before I went on this trip I had read a lot about Fairtrade and banana farming. However it is completely different when you are there, seeing the way they go about things. There is a high level of personal care involved in the banana growing process, an intimacy to it all. Everyone is very hands-on, making sure the job in hand is done to the best of their ability.
The workers at one part of the process explained to me how they cut the trunks in a certain way, pulling back the bark, to indicate to their colleagues that these are the bananas ready to cut down. It is a very simple and effective form of communication.
I was surprised how the bananas are transported. In recent times a person would have had to cut down two huge stacks, carry one on each shoulder and walk a long way to where the bananas are washed and sorted. Many injuries resulted. I tried to pick one stack up and couldn’t manage it as they are incredibly heavy. There is now a new system of cables running throughout the plantation. The farmers cut the stacks down and fix them to a cable which runs to a main cable. A machine pulls rows of banana stalks and moves the bananas to where they need to be. It is a constant process on harvesting days and is a lot healthier for the workers involved.
At the washing and sorting area I saw the greatest care being taken. Every single banana was examined while the staff members used their expertise and intuition. Was this a good banana? Is there damage? Is this bruise important? I had expected some detachment with this kind of conveyor belt work but everyone was incredibly involved.
The quality control was amazing to watch. Specially illustrated sheets show different types of bruising and bananas are held against these to check particular details. The best bunches, of course, are sent for export by Fairtrade firm AgroFair which brings them over to the Co-operative Group and independent stores in the UK. Any that do not pass examination are sorted for the local market and any which are damaged are certainly not wasted - they are used to help create compost. I loved this attitude. Everything is valued - even what we would throw away.
The organic compost made at the plantation - popular among farmers outside as well as inside VREL - is a good example of that. Besides bananas, its ingredients include weeds pulled from the River Volta. Had they been left in the river they would clog the water and provide perfect breeding areas for malaria carrying mosquitos.
One of the things my trip showed me was how I, as a food writer, had known so little about how bananas are grown and end up in supermarkets. It made me think about what a sanitised culture we live in. We do not know where things come from. Children grow up not knowing how fruit and vegetables are grown. I was witnessing these people giving so much care to produce which we all then take for granted.
The farmers we met at VREL were talented and ingenious. They were very proud of what they were doing and so they should have been. Their message was clear - if we in the west buy more of their bananas, then they will work harder to improve their livelihoods. They were absolutely prepared to do that.
I left Ghana wishing there was more Fairtrade and wishing it was not an alternative model of how we do business. This IS how trade should be done. Fairly. How can we, in the 21st century, allow there to be any other way?
Everything at VREL looked the way it should, yet there are so many people out there who are not working like this, who do not have a chance to work towards improving their own destiny.
I think the supermarkets in the UK are very receptive to what the public want and if they say they want Fairtrade, the supermarkets will stock more and more of it. If Fairtrade becomes a normal consumer choice, people will demand it more. We must ask store managers and fresh produce managers, “Why haven’t you got Fairtrade bananas?”
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