Chiquita told freshinfo.com that reports of contract violations and use of dangerous pesticides on one of its farms in Honduras were 'grossly inaccurate'.

Workers went back to work on June 5 after going out on strike just over a week earlier. Their union's request for an independent international commission reviewing the use of chlorpyrifos-treated bags was granted. The commission will meet over the next two weeks and in the meantime, a technical commission appointed by the government in Honduras has ruled in favour of the use of the bags which protect young banana stems from mealy bug.

'Our workers' health and safety is very important to us,' a Chiquita spokesperson told freshinfo. 'SChiquita workers and unions in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and Colombia have used these treated bags for many years. In the Honduras division, workers have applied chlorpyrifos-treated strips to banana stems for many yearsSall without any adverse health consequences.' According to Chiquita, it uses about 500 bags per hectare with a cumulative total of 5.1grams of chlorpyrifos per hectare: 1,000 times less than the maximum dosage allowed by environment-protection authorities in the US for food handling purposes.

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