While the rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket it’s nice to see progress, at any level . . . involving anything . . . even fruit. Please. In a move that can only be paralleled to the St. Louis Rams Super Bowl Championship year, Chiquita, the banana company, has pulled its own veritable “worst-to-first” manuver. After decades of environmental and labor abuses affecting 30,000 employees in seven Latin America countries Chiquita “is becoming a study in corporate responsibility, rather than a counterexample”. Let’s hope other companies will follow in Chiquita’s footsteps. A recent article in Business 2.0 outlines the improvements Chiquita has made and man (Dave McLaughlin) who has been this movement’s steward. Some of the highlights include:
- For decades the $3.9 billion fruit giant was synonymous with the notion of the rapacious multinational. Farmworkers toiled long hours in dangerous conditions, agrochemical runoff contaminated water, and tropical forests were cleared for expansion, says J. Gary Taylor, coauthor of Smart Alliance, a book about Chiquita. “We had a problem that could impact our brand,” McLaughlin says.
- Enter New York-based environmental group Rainforest Alliance, which had previously worked with timber companies in Indonesia to lessen the impact of logging operations . . . In 1992 the Alliance sent banana companies a list of environmental and worker-rights standards required to gain its certification; Chiquita’s officials dismissed the proposal as too expensive. Determined, two Rainforest staffers got face time with McLaughlin at one of the Costa Rican farms. By the end of the four-hour visit, McLaughlin realized the environmentalists weren’t crazy after all and agreed to work with them.
- Today all 110 of Chiquita’s company-owned farms and the vast majority of its independent farms are certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Chiquita now recycles 100 percent of its plastic bags and twine and has reduced pesticide use by 26 percent . . . Though the improvements in working conditions aren’t nearly as dramatic, things are getting better for Latin American employees, who can now join unions. Disputes with Honduran labor unions in late November prompted Chiquita to spend two days renegotiating the workers’ contracts.
- Still, Chiquita is just getting started, and the results are beginning to show up on the bottom line. According to spokesman Michael Mitchell, the company now saves $5 million a year on pesticides, while productivity is up 27 percent. “Our CEO said, ‘This is the first time I’ve made an investment decision without having a spreadsheet in front of me, and it’s been one of the best,’” McLaughlin says. “I agree totally.”
Gives me goose bumps. Clearly room for more progress exists, and what we see today took over 10 years to accomplish. But, Chiquita sets an example for every food company on the planet to take steps at making its business more socially, environmentally and economically responsible. Noting the connectivity of these three elements is vital. The last bullet point demonstrates not only what Chiquita saved on pesticide costs but also the increased productivity by its workers. Pure environmentally driven changes will save costs and Mother Nature but they do nothing to promote healthy working conditions, and without people there is no product. As part of the overall improvements Chiquita has made, the company installed showers, lunchrooms, and locker rooms for workers. Latin America isn’t a bastion of fair labor but these types of working condition improvements are more signs of progress.
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