Windward Isles bananas
The Windward Isles’ banana industry was devastated in 2010 by Hurricane Tomas. Terrible landslides in St Lucia, Dominica and St Vincent cut off large parts of the islands and virtually every banana tree was ripped up. The hurricane capped a disastrous year for the Windward Isles; drought and an outbreak of black sigatoka had already hit the banana industry hard.
However, just nine months after this awful sequence of events, the first shipment of Windward Isles bananas landed on British shores in July 2011, destined for Asda, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose stores.
According to Faith Mall from the Fairtrade Foundation, who visited St Lucia and Dominica last year, a lot of damage is still visible. “It has been a long and difficult journey for the farmers to reclaim water-logged land, replant trees and start selling back to local and international markets,” she says. “There is still much to be rebuilt, but for the Windward Islands farmers, the new year promises more hope for the future than 2011.”
Raisins from Afghanistan
Think of Kabul and scenes of damaged buildings and Taliban fighters spring to mind. But just north of the ancient city lies the Shomali Plain, a grape-growing region that produces raisins renowned as some of the best in the world. Despite the enormous logistical problems associated with transporting the product out of such a fragile country, through the Khyber Pass and Pakistan, one UK wholesaler and retailer, Tropical Wholefoods, is doing just that.
The region was war-torn for decades and was the front line in the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. “It was heavily mined and people were badly affected,” says Richard Friend of Tropical Wholefoods. “It is a tremendous place to grow raisin grapes. Now there is a processing plant complete with x-ray equipment, so they are processed on site and we transport them out through Pakistan.”
Tropical Wholefoods is working with US NGO Mercy Corps in Afghanistan. “It’s one of the poorest countries in the world,” says Mark Chadwick, Mercy Corps programme officer, “and decades of fighting have devastated traditional farming trades like raisin production. Selling to UK markets is a great opportunity.”
Volumes are still small - around 100 tonnes of Afghan raisins are currently being imported per year - but Friend says the company is talking to several of the major retailers about stocking the product.
Olive oil from Palestine
Poverty in Palestine is a way of life for many, but for farmers who grow olives, the opportunity to trade with the UK is a welcome chance to improve their lot. Since 2009, Sainsbury’s has sold Equal Exchange oil, an organic extra virgin oil made from Palestinian olives.
Three-quarters of Palestinian farmers live in poverty, says Nasser Abu Farha, the Palestinian entrepreneur who is exporting the oil. The farmers, mostly based around Jenin and Nablus in the West Bank, receive around a quarter of the £8.50 selling price.
Mangoes from Haiti
The economy of Haiti was shaky even before the earthquake in January 2010 wiped out most of the country’s infrastructure and led to widespread cholera outbreaks. However, since then a campaign to boost Haiti’s economy by buying mangoes has taken root. It has mainly been felt in the US, with Whole Foods Market promoting the fruit, but so far the product has not made its way to the UK.
Pineapples from Ghana
The Central Region of Ghana is one of the most deprived in the country and is home to a large pineapple producing area. The average farm is around three hectares in size with two hectares under pineapples producing around 30 tonnes a year.
In 1998, 80 pineapple farmers formed the Blue Skies Organic Collective Association (BSOC), which negotiates better terms for its members who supply Sugar Loaf pineapples to Blue Skies Products, the collective’s major trading partner.
Blue Skies Products was certified in January 2005 to supply processed pineapples to the Fairtrade market. According to the Fairtrade Foundation, to date, two boreholes have now been constructed using funds raised by the Fairtrade premium and with additional investment by Blue Skies and the Dutch retailer Albert Heijn. This is to solve the acute water supply problems within the four communities. In future, BSOC members would also like to provide public toilets and build local schools.
Baby vegetables from Kenya
Homegrown Kenya is a large-scale plantation that grows and processes vegetables for export. Its customers include Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and The Co-operative. The company also buys in vegetables from local growers and, in 2009, it exported 7,000 tonnes of vegetables to the UK.
Stephen Kairu is one such grower. He supplies Homegrown fine beans, garden peas and baby corn. According to the Fairtrade Foundation, which certifies Homegrown’s produce, the global recession has seriously affected farmers’ incomes with dramatic rises in the cost of food and farm inputs like fertilisers. But farmers like Stephen Kairu have also been hit hard by drought. He gets his water from the Ewaso Nyiro River, which flows down from Mount Kenya. In 2009, the river dried up, causing severe drought in the region.
However, the organisation says despite these hardships, the benefits of selling their vegetables on Fairtrade terms can help growers invest in their families and communities.
Mangoes from Burkina Faso
Subsistence producers with small numbers of trees take up the vast majority of mango producers in Burkina Faso. The mangoes are sold dried to Sainsbury’s, but the conditions are difficult, with pests and diseases a constant worry. The product is bought by wholesaler Tropical Wholefoods and processed in gas ovens to a specific moisture, before they are graded and packed for export to the UK.
Comic Relief has given a grant to enable the mango drying co-operatives to install biogas composters at their mango drying plants. By combining mango peels and stones with human and animal waste in biogas composters, the co-operatives will now be able to generate biogas that can be used to heat the ovens that dry the mango. -
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