The National Chamber of Producers and Exporters of Pineapples (CANAPEP), reported that any information supplied by the German TV channel ZDF regarding pineapple production in Costa Rica lacks objectivity, since it recently made a report about this agroindustry in the country which didn't feature any interviews with representatives of CANAPEP or companies producing this fruit.
The German channel clandestinely recorded pineapple plantations on the outskirts of pineapple growing farms of the Atlantic Region and the Northern Zone, as well as on access roads, and interviewed their labourers on the spot. During these interviews, the ZDF team was accompanied by a representative of the Agricultural Plantation Workers' Union (SITRAP) and another of the international organization Oxfam; organizations that had previously launched accusations against the country's pineapple sector, reporting information that has repeatedly been denied by CANEPEP and the Rainforest Alliance (RFA).
ZDF also abstained from interviewing representatives of these production companies or representatives of CANAPEP, even though there was willingness in the pineapple producing sector to grant these interviews.
Due to the imbalance of sources presented at the report, with a failure to show the position of the producer sector, the CANAPEP reiterates that any publication made by the German channel lacks the necessary objectivity to show the reality of Costa Rica's pineapple production, ignoring the crop's positive impact as a generator of welfare and social progress in Costa Rican society.
