Banana production in Belize
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Banana production in Belize accounted for 16 percent of total
Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
an exports in 1999. Banana production was aided in the 1990s by
privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
and market and production. Banana production in Belize fluctuates, falling from in 1994 to in 1995 before rising back to in 1999. Banana production in Belize began in the late nineteenth century when it was a British colony, when American and
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
investors established the first plantations. Over the last 70 years, the pattern of banana production has gradually shifted away from large scale American and British owned company production to smaller-scale localised indigenous farming primarily targeted at the European market.


History

The Banana trade began between British Honduras and
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
. Commerce was wiped out in the 1920s by an outbreak of the
Panama disease Panama disease (or Fusarium wilt) is a plant disease that infects banana plants (''Musa'' spp.). It is a wilting disease caused by the fungus ''Fusarium oxysporum'' f. sp. ''cubense'' (Foc). The pathogen is resistant to fungicides and its cont ...
. Plantations were destroyed again by hurricanes in 1975 and 1978. The subsequent takeover of banana cultivation by the Banana Control Board, a public enterprise, had the effect of further inhibiting production. By mid-1985, the Banana Control Board had accumulated debts of US$9 million. The government reacted to the plight of the board by selling the under cultivation to the private sector. Five years later, banana production had almost tripled, and the cultivated area had increased to more than . The Banana Control Board was reorganized and retained the responsibility for marketing and research. In 1991 responsibility for the board was passed to the Banana Growers' Association. Britain was the almost exclusive importer of Belizean bananas. Marketing of exports was handled by
Fyffes Fyffes plc () is an Irish fruit and fresh produce company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The Fyffes brand is most closely associated with the banana industry, although it is applied to a wide range of fruits and fresh produce, including the ...
, an Irish subsidiary of the United States company,
United Fruit The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
. The special provisions of the
Lomé Convention The Lomé Convention is a trade and aid agreement between the European Economic Community (EEC) and 71 African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, first signed in February 1975 in Lomé, Togo. History The first Lomé Convention (Lomé I) ...
's Banana Protocol allowed Britain to guarantee artificially high prices for bananas to the beneficiaries of the protocol. These prices were above prices in the United States and
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. The purpose of this special provision was to protect the central export crop of some of the islands of the
Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...
, members of the
Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...
, from ruinous competition from low-cost producers in
Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
. The preferential access to EEC markets provided by the Lomé Convention was under advisement in 1991 by the EEC in connection with its single-European-market program. It appeared that Belize would be better prepared for a drop in prices than would the islands of the Lesser Antilles, as Belizean producers received far lower prices through the protocol than did their
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
neighbors. New port facilities at Big Creek in southern
Stann Creek District Stann Creek District is a district in the south east region of Belize. According to the 2010 census, the district had a population of 32,166 people. Its capital is the town of Dangriga, formerly known as "Stann Creek Town." Stann comes from "stan ...
were expected to increase banana exports. Until 1990 Belizean bananas had had to go through Puerto Cortés, Honduras, which added to overhead. Fyffes then financed the construction of Big Creek, Belize's only deep-water port. This port was designed to serve as the main shipment point for Belizean bananas. Between 1989 and 1991, banana production was hampered by cold weather and black sigatoka disease, and production was expected to double in 1992 because of the new port, better disease control, and improved drainage and
irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...
systems. The susceptibility of bananas to disease and possible changes in Belize's preferential access to the British market were factors that could limit growth in this sector. Nearby countries have become infested with TR4. On August 27, 2019, the government banned the importation of banana materials and products from these countries in an effort to forestall its spread to this country.


Labor practices

In 2013, the
U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
's report on the worst forms of
child labor Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
estimated that working children aged 5 to 14 represented 8.3% of Belize's population which corresponds to around 7,000 children engaged in child labor, especially in the agricultural sector.2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - Belize -
/ref> Harvesting bananas is one of the activities mentioned in the DOL report. Belize was once again classified as one of the 74 countries with significant incidence of child labor in a 2014 ''
List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor The ''List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor'' is an annual publication issued by the United States Government’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. It has been published within the December 2014 D ...
'' published by the
Bureau of International Labor Affairs The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) is an operating unit of the United States Department of Labor which manages the department's international responsibilities. According to its mission statement: ''“The Bureau of International La ...
.List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor
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The U.S. Department of Labor added that "important gaps remain in the country's legal framework on the worst forms of child labor ..and the impact of many of the Government's development and education policies and programs on child labor remains unknown."


References

{{Banana production Banana production Agriculture in Belize