Import prices for pineapples in Germany decreased by 45 percent from 2002 t 2014, the Oxfam report notes, making the tropical fruit an accessible item for consumers. Bananas, the most commonly purchased tropical fruit in Germany, are also now widely available. Both items used to be expensive, but now they are common and can be had cheaply. At the same time, production costs have gone up, and suppliers in Ecuador and Costa Rica have had to find ways to deal: the result, the report argues, is cost-cutting at the expense of the safety and well-being of workers.
In numerous interviews with workers and industry experts in early 2016, Oxfam researchers found that workers were often exposed to pesticides detrimental to their health, were paid low wages that kept families on the verge of poverty, and were kept in precarious employment conditions. Through its investigation, Oxfam found no trade union representation, which many of the workers interviewed said was due to fear of reprisals from fruit suppliers should workers ask for better representation.
The report focuses on the role German retailers have in this situation, which is one where low prices for consumers are only possible because of the poor conditions workers in Costa Rica and Ecuador suffer. The top four supermarkets in Germany control 85 percent of the food retail market, and they have used their clout to determine, to a very large degree, the price for imported fruit. They've used that clout to bring down the price they pay for and the price at which they sell their fruit while at the same time keeping their margins stable. Combined with a trend toward direct import of fruit, the report argues that German supermarkets have the ability and the responsibility to better the lot of Latin American tropical fruit workers.
Supermarkets must ensure that their suppliers maintain humane working conditions, engage in sustainable farming practices and pay their workers a living wage. The retailers have had a part creating the current situation, they have the power to improve it, and, Oxfam argues, they have a responsibility to act.
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