Most of our trip so far has been focused on the supply chain of coffee, but today we got to visit a Dole banana plantation to take a deeper look at the production of another major Costa Rican export. Although coffee and bananas are both produced and exported from Costa Rica, their supply chains are a lot different. One of the major differences I noticed right away is that the banana industry is year round because bananas are harvested all the time, as opposed to coffee which has a specific harvesting period from October-early February. This difference means that banana plantation workers have job security year round, whereas coffee pickers must find another job at the end of harvest season. Similarly to coffee pickers however, banana plantation workers are given benefits such as housing and water. The salaries for the two industries are also comparable: workers at the Dole plantation make about $28 a day, and a good coffee picker can pick enough cajuelas of coffee cherries a day to earn roughly the same.

In terms of sustainability, both coffee and banana producers take similar measures. The Dole plantation recycles the plastic bags they use to prevent bananas from bruising, repel insects, and create a microclimate for the bananas. They also treat the water used to rinse the bananas and reuse it or put it back in the environment. The farm must follow guidelines on things such as pesticide usage put out by an International standards organization. Dole was one of the first produce companies to have programs aimed at reducing pesticide usage, and in 1998, Dole’s Costa Rica division was the first agriculture company in the world to be certified to ISO 14001 (an environmental standard). As far as people, Dole adheres to the International Labor Organization’s standards which include giving employees the right to unionize. Dole usually pays higher than the minimum wage in a given country, and in Costa Rica specifically, Dole pays a tax that contributes to social security. In rural communities where agriculture is one of the only options for employment, Dole’s banana farms as well as other product farms provide jobs to people who might have otherwise had to look further for a job.

Currently, banana plantations face many threats, some similar to and some different than the threats faced by coffee plantations. Both industries face the problems of disease and weather uncertainty. One of the major issues for coffee and banana farms is making sure the plants get enough water. A banana plant needs 30 liters of water per day because the body of a banana plant is 90% water. Coffee plants also need sufficient water to grow, and in years where there is not enough rainfall, crop yield can be severely impacted. Disease is of course a big problem for coffee plantations, but banana plantations are perhaps more susceptible because bananas are monocultures (clones). The lack of genetic diversity can be harmful if a disease happened to affect the plants on a farm because it would affect all plants, whereas on a coffee farm there is more genetic diversity with the different varieties of coffee. Banana plantations are mitigating this risk by taking extreme precautions to prevent the plants from being exposed to disease. When we entered the plantation today, we had to certify that we had not been to a number of countries where diseases are known to be present in the last 6 months, and we also had to wash our shoes and walk through an iodine solution to ensure no contamination.

If I were a plantation worker, I would most likely rather work on a banana plantation because of a guaranteed year round job, but my decision would also be impacted by the company who owned the plantation. A coffee company such as Doka or Life Monteverde would be good to work for since they take a lot of steps to help their workers in areas like housing and education, but Dole also exhibits similar aspects of corporate social responsibility. The agriculture industry definitely has a long way to go when it comes to treatment of employees, but from what I’ve seen on this trip, there are companies that are making real efforts to engage in sustainable environmental practices and sound employee treatment.