Three of the world’s largest banana companies have agreed to
take part in a pilot project aimed at improving labour standards on
their estates in central America.
Dole, Chiquita and Del
Monte will participate in the scheme in Costa Rica with help from seven
UK supermarket chains who are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative
(ETI).
The seven – Asda, Co-operative Wholesale Services,
Marks & Spencer, Somerfield, Tesco, Sainsburys and Safeway –
account for up to 55 per cent of banana sales in the UK and hope their
influence will improve conditions on the estates, which have been
criticised by international trade unions.
The ETI-sponsored
project, which has been the subject of months of delicate negotiations,
will try to develop locally acceptable monitoring and inspection
procedures in conjunction with 27 non-governmental organizations,
(NGOs), five trade unions, the seven supermarkets and the three banana
companies.
ETI manager Dan Rees said Chiquita, Dole and Del
Monte have ‘agreed in principle’ to the idea, which will now be fleshed
out over the next couple of months. A pilot proposal has been sent out
to interested parties in Costa Rica with the aim of reaching a concrete
agreement by early summer.
The project, which has the backing
of the International Union of Food Workers and the Central American
Women’s Network (an alliance of central American women’s groups), is
likely to follow the format of three similar ETI pilot projects
elsewhere – involving horticulture in Zimbabwe, wine making in South
Africa and the clothing industry in China.
It will probably
first use the international social auditing company BVQI to monitor
working practices and then adopt a ‘multi-stakeholder’ approach in
which local NGOs and trade unions will be asked to devise their own
inspection procedures. Both approaches will then be contrasted to see
which gives the best results.
‘Basically we will see how an
’outside‘ organization can inspect against ETI-based codes to the
satisfaction of stakeholders and then get the stakeholders to do their
own methodology and compare the results,’ said Rees.
The
entire project will be chaired by Alan Roberts, director of sourcing at
Littlewoods retailers, an ETI member with expertise in supply chain
monitoring that does not sell bananas and is therefore seen as a
‘neutral’ player.
Dole and Chiquita in particular have been
the target of concerted campaigns and boycotts over the past few years
for alleged anti-union practices, low wages and poor working conditions
on their estates in central America.
‘It’s well known that
there are concerns about the conditions under which bananas are
produced,’ said Rees. ‘Trade unions in Costa Rica have run an
international campaign and have raised the issue with supermarkets in
the UK. ETI members felt that as bananas are an important product and
as Costa Rica is the second biggest supplier to the UK they wanted to
focus their efforts there.’
