Banana women

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Fairtrade Max Havelaar bananas

The banana women (later gebana or terrafair ), organized by the pastor Ursula Brunner , were a group of women in Frauenfeld ( Switzerland ) who, under the premise of justice , wanted to enforce an extra price for bananas in favor of banana producers in developing countries (especially in Nicaragua ) .

Under the motto of the question Why is a banana cheaper than an apple? From the 1970s onwards, the banana women sensitized the public to the problems of world trade and the social and ecological grievances in banana cultivation. They demanded from the Swiss retail chains, v. a. of Migros , a surcharge on bananas, which should benefit the producers.

The banana women initially sold “conventional” Chiquita bananas with a surcharge that went to social projects in the countries of origin. Later they imported bananas from Nicaragua (“Nicas”) and ran a campaign “ Nicas instead of Chiquitas ”.

The banana women are considered to be the pioneers of “ fair trade ” in Switzerland.

With the establishment of the Max Havelaar Foundation (Switzerland) and the introduction of certified fair trade bananas in the large retail chains in 1997, they felt that they were “superfluous”. Their work lives on in the successor organization Arbeitsgemeinschaft Just Bananenhandel (gebana) and the affiliated association gebana / terrafair.

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