The Colombian banana producer and exporter, Unibán, has great growth plans, despite already exporting 800 reefer containers per month. It aims to further develop the rapidly developing banana and plantains snack market in Europe as well as grow the fresh produce import sector in Colombia. “We have 500 of those containers that come back empty. We’re interested in buying fruit and bringing it back to Colombia,” says Manuel Laborde, CEO of Unibán.
Fair living wages, focus on 2024 prices
He says while their immediate focus is on the contract price negotiations with large buyers for the 2024 season, the focus is on them fulfilling the shared value and fair wages to thousands of workers. Unibán is the largest banana exporter in Colombia and the sixth largest marketer in the world. It is a 60 year old company that exports 40 million boxes of banana fruit to the world and 3.5 million boxes of plantains.
“The European markets are moving to appreciate and care about employee well-being in farms and growers operations. We’re fully unionized. Our benefits and compensation to workers are a journey of shared value creation. The price of bananas historically stayed very flat. It is the hook for reference of low prices for retailers, with a revenue line that has not grown as cost increased. We have provided additional benefits to workers over the years. It is as fair as you can find, this whole living wage interest is how we live. The market caught up to the good work that Unibán has already done for years in this area. This is another level of compensation, to which the market has to catch up. It must become known to the consumer that the retail store they visit cares about workers and the work being done,” states Laborde.
He says as a company they are seeing ‘exciting’ growth in multiple markets. “We aim to understand the value chain and for every retail outlet we have to know what it costs us to serve them. We want the fruit in the best possible hands at the fairest compensation possible. We expect retailers will be showing this level of care of compensation for workers. Especially with the view of the new season prices for 2024. They must walk the talk, everyone must be compensated fairly. It takes a lot of resources, we have 144 farms to measure every employee’s compensation, that there is no gap in living wage. We have just signed a four year agreement with all the unions in the industry, increasing costs with 14%, which is a good thing.”
Growing plantain exports
Following their efforts in Madrid last week, Laborde and his snacking team at another show in Germany for this week to promote the snacks category. “We are promoting the snacks and launching our freeze dried bananas, fried banana and green bananas products. The category is strong as can be seen in the move from ethnic and Caribbean to the mainstream sections. We were incredibly successful in Madrid and here in Germany we are very happy with the reception of our new products. The UK, Germany and Italy are our main markets while we are growing in Spain, Benelux countries with France who are very interested in the plantains.”
He concludes by saying Unibán has the capabilities to serve their domestic market with more imported fruit. “We’re interested in buying fruit and bringing it back to Colombia. Imported apple is the top consumed fruit coming into Colombia. We have all the capabilities and the low compensation route through the empty containers. Colombia has 51 million people with a strong middle class, with the purchasing power, who love to buy imported goods. We want to provide fruit both ways. We also want to be the channel for avocados and lemons exports from Colombia, through a new and via the existing port.”
For more information:
Manuel Laborde
Unibán
Tel: +57 301 518 5355
Email: comunicacionescorporativas@uniban.com.co
www.uniban.com