“I am the third generation of my family to grow Cavendish bananas,” Daabon Group president Alberto Davila Diaz Granados tells FPJ, “and when I went to California University, I think I found my hippy side!” Therein lies the root of a philosophy which has, for the last 12 years, seen his companies on a mission to pioneer the production of organic coffee, palm oil, cocoa, sugar and last but not least bananas, in Colombia.
Organic production could be looked at as something of a double-edged sword in a country where the environment and soils lend themselves to the practice, but the predominance of small farmers reliant on their annual crop to eke out a living makes the risk of short or medium term failure a hard one to bear. However, where the recruitment process was harder for other products, the larger scale nature of the group’s four banana plantations cuts out the direct risks for workers and has provided much-needed stability to many families in the area.
CI Samaria grows bananas in a zone between the town of Santa Marta, on the Caribbean coast of the country’s northern Magdalena region, and the region’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. With an average of eight employees per hectare, the company says that its people feel they belong to the organic banana industry and have some ownership in it at the same time. Magdalena is considered, says the company’s Germán Zapata Hurtado, the best banana growing area in Colombia, although it is not as prolific as Uraba, the largest volume region in the country. “We have a very special microclimate here,” he says. “Opposite to what happens on most coasts around the world, the wind blows out to sea from the mountains, rather than inland from the ocean. That is beneficial to the fruit, as there is no salty air to contend with, but it is also good for controls and helps the organic processes.”
The area’s altitude changes from sea level to 5,800 metres above sea level in just 20 kilometres, giving the region a broad mixture of temperatures and an average of between 25-28°C throughout the summer - dropping to around 18°C in winter. The various rivers that flow from the largely unpopulated sierra provide a constant availability of clean water for use in production and packaging. “If there is no water, we have no bananas,” says plantations manager Carlos Ochoa. “Production is very water-intensive, but we have no problems in this area.”
Bananas are grown on flat land at between 50-100m above sea level, but benefit from their natural surroundings. “The fruit grown here is exposed to more hours of sunshine and less wind than in most banana producing regions, and we also have 1,200mm of rain a year” says Zapata. “It is therefore sweeter, which is what most international markets are looking for.”
CI Samaria’s organic bananas are exported around the world, included to the UK through Pratts Bananas for customers including Tesco. Dealing with customers like Tesco and Japanese retailers has driven Daabon to try to lead its industry in social responsibility.
A dozen years of building a reputation and instilling an ethos into its workforce has paid off for Daabon. “There is no point looking after the forests, the soil and the water if you don’t look after the people,” says Zapata. “That is central to the philosophy of our business. Apart from our organic certification, we are certified to the SA8000 standard - I believe we are the only Colombian company to have gone this far. It is important for us to guarantee to customers and consumers that we comply with all of our obligations to our employees.
“It is not easy - the additional labour costs to produce organically are high and the fertilising products are also more costly when you consider that the yields we can expect are around 15 per cent lower. We do receive a premium and that does compensate for the higher costs, but we also have to be competitive,” says Zapata.
The company has 300 hectares of organic banana plantation and, at just 90 minutes from the naturally deep-sea port and 12-15 days from Sheerness, does not suffer from the logistics issues that plague fellow Colombian producers. Capacity should double by 2007, with a further 300ha in the process of coming into full production. “We intend to continue expanding, we have more area, and the demand for organic bananas appears to keep increasing, particularly in the UK. We are also looking to obtain Fairtrade status, which would definitely assist us to continue and even upgrade the social and environmental programmes we have begun,” Zapata says.
“One of the advantages a smaller company like ourselves has over the larger multinationals,” he claims, “is that part of the premiums we receive really does go to the labour force, as it is easier to filter it down. Multinationals have bigger costs and tighter margins. I think when people in England eat organic or Fairtrade bananas, they believe they are making people in the developing world to live a better life - that is huge for us.”
GARCIA’S HIGH HOPES FOR BABIES
Hacienda El Refugio has been exporting bananitos (baby bananas) for 10 years. It sells under the Tay brand into a number of European markets, the biggest volume destinations being Switzerland and France. The company, which exports as Frutay, has also sold into the UK through Pratts.
During 2004 and 2005, the farm has expanded its plantation from 30,000 to 40,000 Mussa Acuminata (bananito) plants, which will similarly increase production potential from the current 14,000kg a year by a third.
EurepGAP-certified for a year and committed to implementing methods of biocontrol, general manager Augusto Garcia believes the UK offers more potential for the product than has so far been realised. “Achieving EurepGAP is difficult, but it is all relative. We understand the need to implement tighter controls and new systems for our production and employees. To reduce chemical usage to virtually nothing is very important and our climate makes this possible,” he says. The newer plantations will only be treated preventatively, whereas in some of the older plantations, the primary job will be to reduce the dependence on chemical input.
The key to increasing exports though, will be the use of new technology to allow us to send the fruit by sea in large volumes. It is a very delicate product, with a different physiological make-up and more delicate skin than the Cavendish. But the cost of airfreight is prohibitive - $2.80 a kg compared with $1/kg on the boat - and we do not have the export volumes to create economies of scale. We need 4,000 boxes to fill a container and the market demand just is not there yet, and there is no real solution,” he says.
To make the baby banana pay, he adds, the return needs to be at least double that of a normal banana. Whereas plantations of Cavendish can be expected to yield 40kg a bunch, bananito plants yield typical bunches of 8kg. The costs of production are broadly the same. “It has to achieve a premium,” says Garcia, whose family has owned the Hacienda El Refugio farm since 1930. The farm is, at 1,200 metres above sea level, with an average temperature of 20°C, “perfect for bananas,” says Garcia, adding: “It is a beautiful product, available year-round, but at the moment shelf-life is limited if we send by ship, and business needs to be done quickly in Europe.”
The UK market has massive potential for bananitos, says Garcia, and the additional volume now being planted should increase the attraction to customers and consumers alike. The delicatessen sector has seen most of the fruit to date, he says. “The fruit is the perfect size for the National School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme, and it is sweeter than normal bananas too, so children would love it. We can send 30t a week to Europe at the moment, so there is no doubt that the volume is there, it is the specific demand that is lacking. If we can become more efficient and put in a cheaper bananito, we know we could compete better in price-sensitive markets. And with volume, we will definitely be able to do that.”
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