Near the end of 2018 there was a stir in the industry, when discounter Lidl began converting its range to bananas with the fair trade mark. The internationally recognized seal, awarded in Germany by the Transfair initiative, guarantees compliance with social and ecological standards in cultivation. Small farmers receive stable minimum prices and a premium, so they are less dependent on fluctuating world market prices and are more 
secure of their livelihoods. Now it's time for the next step: Because gradually Lidl wants to offer in all its 3200 German branches only fruits that meet these criteria. In January, 700 stores had already switched over.
'Fatal price pressure'
But Lidl is still standing in the middle of the big retail chains. Banana producers from Ecuador, one of the largest banana exporting countries, recently even wrote a protest letter stating that German discounters were planning to push down purchase prices from $ 0.42 per kilogram to $ 0.38. Such price pressures have "fatal consequences for producers in all exporting countries".