Women workers’ raw deal in UK banana price wars

As many women shopping to feed their families in credit crunch Britain, cheap bananas may sound like a good deal, for their sisters who grow them, on the other side of the world, the opposite is true. The UK supermarkets’ banana price war spells catastrophe for the people who work in the industry, say organisations representing fruit growers. As growers in the developing world go out of business, fears are growing for the stability of some small economies, which rely on the banana crop.

Women workers tend to take the biggest hit. Because of the price cuts banana industry, employers are taking on less and less women. They argue that women are more expensive to employ, because of the legal requirement to respect their maternity rights, according to campaign group campaign, Banana link. Asda last week cut the price of its loose bananas to 38 pence a kilo, the Guardian newspaper reported, its sixth cut in six weeks. Buyers may like the fact that cut-price European chains Aldi and Lidl have also followed suit and drastically slashed the price of their bananas. But the knock-on effect for growers will be disastrous. "Price cuts serve only to devalue bananas yet further, creating a false illusion among shoppers that they can be sustainably produced for such give-away prices," said Barbara Crowther from the Fairtrade Foundation that guarantees to buy fruit from farmers at an agreed price.

Bananas – Britain's most popular fruit – are the one biggest profit-making item sold in British supermarkets. With more than 140 million of them eaten each week in the UK, bananas are supermarkets' best sellers after lottery tickets and petrol. For this reason, shoppers notice very quickly changes in their price, as with other basics such as bread, milk and baked beans.It is not just the farmers who will lose out if the islands' banana industry collapses. In the Windward Islands, bananas pay for schools, buses and crucial infrastructure.

Asda and the other retail giants insist their suppliers will not suffer – and that the real winner in this battle will be consumers. Alex Brown, Asda's produce director, said: "We're footing the bill so we can guarantee the move won't have any impact on the price we pay our suppliers, and any other retailer following our lead should make that same commitment." But growers and plantation workers say they have been feeling the effects of the price wars since the millennium. “Do these guys not realise what they're doing to us?" said a spokesman for Latin American Banana Workers. "They are putting all the costs of the 'crisis' in Britain on our backs." “At least 40% of our financial troubles can be attributed directly to lower prices from our UK buyer"; another worker said. "We - our company and our workers - are the ones paying the cost of your price wars". Banana Link’s Alistair Smith added: "Prices to suppliers are one-third lower than seven years ago and few plantation workers now earn anything like a living wage."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children