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Our Work in Colombia

with SINTRAINAGRO

Home » Where We Work » Colombia

Colombia is the world’s fifth largest banana exporter (after Ecuador, Philippines, Guatemala and Costa Rica) and supplies about one tenth of the world export market, employing around 150,000 people.

Uniban (in a joint venture with Fyffes), Banacol, Banafrut, Chiquita Brands International, Dole Food Company, and Del Monte Fresh Produce are the most important banana-marketing companies in Colombia.

Population 51.8 million
Gross Domestic Product 343.94 billion US$
Agriculture 8.3% of GDP
Total Land Area 110.95 million hectares
Cultivated Land 43.78 million hectares
Banana Production Area 477,000 hectares
Total Banana Production 3.7 million metric tonnes (2017)
ITUC Global Rights Index Rating 5 (No guarantee of rights)

SINTRAINAGRO
Banana Link Partner

SINTRAINAGRO, Colombia’s agricutural workers’ union, is the largest in Latin America, representing around 20,000 banana workers in 266 medium- and large-scale banana plantations, as well as workers in other agricultural industries.

For over 25 years, SINTRAINAGRO has negotiated wages and other social benefits through a national collective bargaining agreement with the main employers’ organisation in the Colombian banana industry, Augura. Against the grain, in a country where trade union rights are still violently repressed, the union has built a system of mature industrial relations which means that workers in the Urabá region have some of the best wages and social conditions in the international banana industry thanks to sector-wide collective bargaining. The latest agreement runs for four years from 2023 to 2027 and includes commitments from the companies involved to hire more women workers.

Colombia is also an important source of Fairtrade certified bananas, especially for the British supermarkets.

Our Work in Colombia

We have supported SINTRAINAGRO to undertake a range of initiatives to support women workers who lost their jobs due to fierce winds which devastated the banana sector in Urabá in 2014.

These included training workshops for women on alternative income sources, a marketplace providing basic goods to the affected women, purchase of school supplies for their children, and a hardship fund.

The organisation was also a partner in the Make Fruit Fair! Campaign between 2015 and 2018.

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