Politically aware Irish consumers will enjoy their bananas that little bit more following the arrival in three Irish supermarkets of Fairtrade bananas, which bring with them the guarantee that plantation workers and the environment get a fair deal.
OK, they cost a little more but the premium is used to fund a variety of worthwhile projects, according to Mr Anthony Blay, the general manager of Volta River Estates in Ghana, which produces 7,000 tonnes of bananas annually. He says that selling their bananas through Fairtrade means workers are paid twice the minimum wage of 4,500 cedis (about 65p) a day.
When the plantation joined Fairtrade in 1996, workers were given 25 per cent of the shares. A collective bargaining agreement was put in place. Inflation in Ghana runs at between 20 and 30 per cent. This year, workers secured a pay rise of 27.5 per cent, says Mr Blay.
The Fairtrade premium of $1.75 per box of bananas is allocated to various projects by a committee which comprises seven workers and two management representatives. "So far we have used it to establish buffer zones between our four plantations and the river Volta. These zones have been planted with native trees such as acacia.
"At present we are putting toilets and showers on all of our sites and we are providing piped water to the local community. We are hoping to build a health facility to serve our workers and the local community," says Mr Blay.
But even if you don't particularly care about the working conditions of banana plantation workers, you may be interested to find you are getting a less chemically drenched banana. "Volta River has managed to reduce the use of agri-chemicals by 80 per cent," says Mr Blay. "We have supplemented the use of inorganic fertilisers with animal manure. We spray our bananas eight to 10 times a year compared to more than 40 sprayings in a year." Volta River, which is Ghana's only banana producer, uses chemicals for disease control only. Weed control is done manually. "If we used agri-chemicals for weed control we would need only half of our 720 workers," says Mr Blay.
Contrary to popular imagination, banana plantations are not leafy green tropical forests of vegetation with yellow bananas ripening in the hot sun. In fact, the plants are festooned with plastic bags which are used to create micro-climates around the bunches of bananas, speeding maturation and preventing insect attack. Conventional plantations impregnate the plastic bags with chemicals. While Volta River is also a haven for plastic bags, the bags are not chemically treated and they are recycled.
The Fairtrade bananas now on sale in Ireland come from Volta River and the Fairtrade co-operative, Coopetrabasur, in Costa Rica. Some 20 per cent of male banana workers in Costa Rica were left sterile after handling toxic chemicals, according to Unpeeling the Banana Trade, a report published by Fairtrade Mark Ireland this week.
Coopetrabasur has stopped using paraquat and other herbicides, reduced chemical fertilisers and started recycling all plastic waste, cleared up a rubbish pit and started planting trees along canals.
Mr Justin Kilcullen, director of Trocaire, who launched the Fairtrade bananas last Saturday, says: "The Fairtrade mark is the only independent guarantee of a better deal for Third World producers, and by buying bananas with it we can directly support some of the poorest producers in the world . . . Three of the largest supermarket chains, Dunnes Stores, Superquinn and SuperValu, are going to supply these bananas, giving us a chance to make Fairtrade something that can happen all around the country . . ."