A banana producer from Rio Verde (Brazil) speaks

Rio Verde is a community in the coastal region of southern Brazil. About 60 families live here amid the subtropical rainforest. The humid warm climate is ideal for the banana plant, which is an important source of income for our community. Because the costs for transporting the bananas are very high for us small farmers, some farmers joined together in 1990 and began to organize banana transport and commercialization collectively.

The association now has 28 members. Since 2001 Gebana has been buying our bananas to dry them and sell them in Europe. We were supposed to carry out the drying process ourselves, but there were difficulties with that. At the moment our bananas are being dried by a small company in a nearby town, but we would like to do this ourselves again – that way the work and the income stay in the village. Gebana has promised us its support and, if all goes well, we will soon be producing in Rio Verde.

Fair trade is not easy

Fair trade helps us to make a living from our work and we hope that the next generation will stay in the community because of it. But the bureaucracy for certification causes us great difficulties. In the Associaçã o we divide the work among ourselves; everyone voluntarily takes on a part. However, this leads to no one having an overview. Communication was also a problem for a long time, since our village is very remote, we have to collect the mail in town and we only have a single public telephone. But the situation is steadily improving; recently mobile phones have started to work here and soon there will also be an internet connection. I myself am a teacher at the village school; I run my banana plantation on the side. My wife Maria and my five children help me with it. Except for my eldest son Erasmo, who moved to the city and now works in Paranaguá at the port.

The variety of banana types here is large. They have names like ‚Silver Banana‘ and ‚Gold Banana‘, ‚Black‘ and ‚Grey Banana‘. There are also the ‚Earth Banana‘, the ‚Apple Banana‘ and the ‚Rogue Banana‘. Fried, cooked or mashed we use the different varieties in the preparation of dishes. However, many people in our area do not value the banana as a food very much, probably because it is abundant. I see it differently: The banana is one of the most nutritious foods there is. That is why I eat at least one banana raw every day."