"Swing to fairtrade bananas in Germany"

Although the first few months of the year normally are good months for selling bananas, the prices have collapsed again at the moment. This as told by Martijn van Es of Savid International, an export company specialising in the sale of organic and fairtrade bananas from the Dominican Republic. "At the moment arrivals are good, but there have also been some delayed arrivals."

According to Martijn there is a movement in Germany at the moment to fairtrade bananas. The German retailer Edeka is changing to fairtrade bananas. For Savid it is not easy to benefit from this. "Germany is hardly buying any Dominican bananas at the moment, but chooses for bananas from Ecuador and Peru."

The banana disease Black Sigatoka is hardly an issue with the importer. "But it is rather cold in the Dominican Republic now and the fungus is hibernating, but I am afraid for next summer. In conventional cultivation chemical protection means can be used, but with organic this is not allowed. This causes the volumes of organic bananas from this country to decrease further all the time and even be halved."

According to Martijn, Black Sigatoka can be overcome. "The leaves can be protected by organic means and can be cut as soon as the fungus shows itself.

When these things are done properly it will offer a certain measure of protection. We invest a lot of money in controlling the growers, because it is of great importance that bananas from infected orchards are not exported. Unfortunately very often the growers lack the knowledge to fight this disease."

For more information:
Martijn van Es
Savid International
124-128, Herengracht
1015 BT Amsterdam
Tel: 020-7494585
www.savid.biz