A commission from the U.S. decertified thirteen independent banana producers of northern Honduras due to labour rights violations.
"They won't be able to export bananas to the United States or sell their products to Chiquita because they is no certification company who will certify them," said the head of the Federation of Agribusiness Trade Unions (Festagro). Iris Munguia said that, "we have had a strong campaign against the Rainforest Alliance (RA) for the past two years because they were certifying companies that violate the labour rights of working men and women."
She added that "on November 7, a committee of the Rainforest Alliance (RA) had inspected the plantations which had been denounced for violating labour rights."
"This morning we received a notice from the Audit Inspection which specifies that the desertification was issued for the banana plantation Tres Hermanas of the Honduran Distributor Fruit Company (Cohfrutsa).
"As one of Cohfrutsa's plantations was violating labour rights, then the whole group was decertified."
She noted that Las Tres Hermanas is the plantation where workers' rights were being violated the most."
"The government has to intervene because it is a product that sells well in the international market and, according to reports, it's the best banana; unfortunately people have not realized in what conditions it is packaged," she concluded.
Source: Latribuna.hn