Banana in Ecuador

This case study is of a banana farmer in Ecuador named Renson. It tells howjoining a Fair Trade cooperative has improved his family situation.

Renson is proud of the new home he been able to build for his wife and his twoyoung children since selling his bananas to the Fair Trade market. His father nowhas a place of his own, in the old wooden house next door. Renson's ambitionis simply to be able to carry on selling bananas to the Fair Trade market. “I don’t want Fairtrade to disappear – for the sake of all us small producers. We’renot millionaires, but we’re proud of being in Fair Trade. We can help each otherand we can help our workers.” He hopes to give his children the education hemissed out on. “I was the only child,” he says. “I had to leave school and work onthe farm.”

A better deal

Renson is a member of the El Guabo banana cooperative, the only group ofsmall farmers in Ecuador that, with the help of Fair Trade, manages to avoid theintermediaries and export their own bananas. For Renson, the benefits of FairTrade include a stable, higher price for his crop, and the encouragement to stopusing pesticides on his farm. “The bananas are sweeter,” he says, “they havea better scent. Other companies say – do what you like! They don’t care howmany chemicals you put on the crop.” The cooperative gave Renson a loan toirrigate his land and install tanks for washing the bananas. The members of thecooperative also help each other, loaning small sums of money in times of need.

His daily life

Renson gets up each day at 6am. His wife makes his breakfast, which oftenincludes rice and green bananas. By 7:30, he is at work on his three hectarefarm alongside his father and uncle. Once a week, with the help of a team oflocal workers, boxes of bananas are scrupulously checked for size and defects,then packed into boxes for dispatch to the local port. Renson and his family workat irrigating, keeping weeds away, and wrapping the growing bananas in plasticbags for protection. With a break for lunch at 11am (sometimes a meal of fishfrom the nearby coast) Renson works till 4pm. Outside work, he relaxes with hisfamily and enjoys the social side of being in a Fair Trade registered cooperative.Apart from the weekly meetings, the farmers organise parties. Renson also playsfor the cooperative's football team.