Читать книгу The Savvy Shopper - Rose Prince - Страница 29

BANANAS

A banana is all the more enjoyable when you are sure the growers received a fair sum, so it is well worth paying the extra 40 pence or so per kilo for Fairtrade fruit – it is a low price for a highly nutritious food. However, as the Fairtrade phenomenon gathers pace and our supermarkets commit themselves to selling some fairly traded food, concern about the production methods for conventional bananas grows. Meanwhile, a trade war is brewing that could change the banana map forever, narrowing consumer choice.

What’s behind the incredible popularity of bananas?

In the first place, bananas are a ‘superfood’, like papaya and broccoli. They have high levels of fibre (good for the gut), vitamin C (to protect against disease) and potassium, which, apart from slashing the risk of heart disease, is an excellent hangover cure. We love them, too, as we do eggs, for their naturally built-in hygienic wrapping.

Why are bananas such an important fruit to the UK?

They’ve long been part of our culture, tied in with our loyalty to the once-colonised countries who supply us with them. The same countries used to be chiefly sugarcane growers, but that market began to collapse in the 1930s and 1940s, when northern European farmers started growing sugar beet (later sustained by some tasty subsidies). In other words, we wiped out the sugar business in the Caribbean, causing social unrest. To compensate, we set up Geest, a company whose name became synonymous with exporting bananas.

Do long, straight bananas come from a different plant
from the small, curvy ones?

Almost every banana on sale, indeed 98 per cent of world export, is the Cavendish variety. Cavendish is high yielding and travels well, lasting up to four weeks after picking. But growing one type of banana creates a monoculture, reducing biodiversity and attracting disease even to the reasonably disease-resistant Cavendish. Banana ‘shape’ comes down to the farming method; small, curvy bananas tend to be Caribbean, where they use less expensive fertilisers and pick early. A London market importer likened the Caribbean banana to ‘a small hungry hand’ – with good reason.

Why is there a banana trade war?

Because the US companies with huge banana business interests in South America protested that under WTO (World Trade Organisation) law the Europeans can no longer offer favourable trade conditions to Caribbean exporters. The EU has now ruled that all countries should pay a single tariff, or tax. The Caribbean growers say that, due to poorer growing conditions, banana production is more costly there and with a single tariff they cannot compete. They say the US complaint was about corporate greed, and will not bring fairness. The EU stands accused of making rules without evaluating the outcome. No study has been done to check how even the playing field will become and the Caribbean countries say the future of banana growing is under threat. Around 80 per cent of the banana market is controlled by corporations, including Dole, Del Monte, Bonito and Chiquita.

Are bananas sprayed?

Bananas rank second on the ‘most sprayed’ list (cotton ranks first), especially on large-scale plantations that can afford the expense of agricultural chemicals. Some of these pesticides and fungicides are hazardous to growers. Workers in Honduras have just persuaded a multinational corporation to stop using chlorpyriphos after a study showed it caused skin allergies, appetite loss and fertility problems. There are compensation cases pending in Nicaragua over similar claims of horrific damage to workers’ health.

Are bananas artificially ripened?

All bananas, including organic ones, need a trigger for ripening. Most producers use ethylene, a gas that is permitted even under Soil Association rules. Ethylene is naturally produced by fruit, but for commercial purposes it is manufactured, a by-product of industry. Remember that you can ripen bananas, tomatoes and avocados by putting them in a paper bag and letting the natural ethylene enclosed get to work. Ethylene is not that harmful and the Soil Association argues that it must permit this treatment or we can forget the availability of organic bananas.

Are organic bananas more eco-friendly?

Bananas travel several thousand miles, organic or not. But both conventional and organic bananas travel by boat, not plane, and leaving the banana out of the fruit bowl would have a devastating sociological impact on producing countries so it is a worthwhile exception to make, even for those aiming to keep food miles to a minimum. Bananas are also very nutritious. Soil Association-certified bananas hail from the Windward Isles, Costa Rica and Ecuador.

Which is the ideal banana to buy?

It is best to buy organic or Fairtrade bananas; the extra is worth paying and they are still a remarkably cheap food. Be aware, however, that Fairtrade does not necessarily mean organic, and Fairtrade bananas could have been treated with agricultural chemicals unless the pack also says organic. Having said that, it is also the case that Faitrade bananas tend to be grown by producer groups of small-scale farmers who cannot afford the expense of pesticides and fertilisers, so minimise their use. Likewise a premium should be paid to organic banana farms, boosting their income, so there is an element of fair trade, too.

Sales of Fairtrade bananas are growing at an astonishing rate of 43 per cent per annum, increasing from sales of 18 million kilos in 2003 to 25 million kilos in 2004. Some countries need more help than others. The Windward Islands are the most needy and fairly traded bananas from there are the ones to buy. Look for the ‘Windwards’ label, but also for Caribbean bananas in general.

What the supermarkets say

Sainsbury sells both a Fairtrade and an organic supply of bananas. Marks & Spencer and the Co-op import their bananas from the Caribbean and sell an additional Fairtrade supply and an organic supply. Budgens sells bananas sourced from all over the Caribbean, including a Fairtrade and an organic variety. Waitrose sells Fairtrade bananas from the Windward Isles and Tesco sells them from the Caribbean.

It is interesting to note that at the time of writing the price of conventional bananas in the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets was a standard 85 pence per kilo. Could they be ‘price fixing’, which is illegal? No – the price is too low to accuse the stores of this. Supermarkets rate bananas as a KVI – a ‘known value item’. This means they lower the price as far as it can possibly go, which works out the same for each of the Big Four. No wonder fair trade is needed.