All of the banana used in Made Fair ice cream comes from Ecuador via The Asociación de Pequeños Productores Bananeros El Guabo.  Established in 1997, the founding farmer members were amongst the first to be involved in Fairtrade bananas.  Today, there are 462 producers in El Guabo, with an average farm or finca size of 5 hectares each.  El Guabo exports its bananas directly, something that the farmers are very proud of because it has enabled them to bypass the intermediary buyers who sold their bananas on to multinational companies and for years paid them very poorly.

Making a difference

To manage the Fairtrade premium funds, El Guabo created PROMESA – a team of 8 people who manage a programme of projects with the aim of making social and environmental improvements to the lives of the producers, workers and the community.

PROMESA aims to create a positive impact in terms of socio-economic development looking at how the whole community can develop, not just the small producers of El Guabo: at the level of the farms, with producers and workers; at the level of post-harvest, with the casual workers and quality checkers; at the level of shipment, with the quality checkers at the port and loading; and at the
level of the community.

The programme focuses on health, education and the environment. In all areas, El Guabo either works with, or is seeking to work in conjunction with, local or government bodies to combine efforts and have a greater impact. For example, El Guabo carries out a vaccination programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Health.

A grower’s story

Heriberto Enríquez San Martin is 35 and farms his father’s 9 hectares of land producing around 350 18kg boxes of bananas each week. He said:    
“As a result of Fairtrade things have changed for the better. We work with much more awareness than we used to. We produce better quality bananas now and we care for the environment and the workers.   Banana production now is safer which means that we can look forward to a better future.’

“For me, Fairtrade is about solidarity between farmers and workers who care for the land and the bananas, and also solidarity with consumers who buy Fairtrade bananas because they care about helping people.  Fairtrade is about devotion to the land and the people.  Fairtrade is about endeavour on the part of farmers, workers and our banana  association El Guabo.”