Banana Producers

Eighty percent of the international trade of bananas is made by 5 major banana producers. These major producers  are Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte, Noboa, and Fyffes. The top three corporation’s products are called “dollar bananas”. These corporations have excessively long hours, low wages, and deny trade union rights and freedom of association. Only about 12% of the income for bananas stays in the producing country. Plantation workers take about 7-10%, while small farm workers only get about 2 percent. Banana producers are always pressured to lower the prices and wages. (Martin Frazier from peoplesworld.org) The major producers get paid a lot more then the smaller producers that depend on banana production to survive.
    Bananas grown by different producers are sold in different countries. Latin American bananas are controlled by major corporations on large plantations. Most Latin American bananas are sold in North America. Caribbean bananas are grown on small family farms and cooperatives that are represented by the Union. Caribbean bananas are sold to the European Union, but mostly to the UK. Latin American producers and Caribbean producers have a very different labor price. Latin American producers pay wages of $5 a day while Caribbean producers pay about $15 a day. (Martin Frazier from peoplesworld.org) The larger companies that sell much more than the family farms pay their employees less than what the family farms pay their employees.