Fyffes PLC is an Irish company, headquartered in Dublin, engaged in the production, procurement, shipping, ripening, distribution, and marketing of fruits including bananas, pineapples, and melons.1 They have operations in Cost Rica and Honduras.
The NGO ‘Banana Link’ has brought to the fore issues of labour violations on plantations in Costa Rica and Honduras by subsidiaries of the Fyffes group. The general trade union of the UK has called for Fyffes to be thrown out of the Ethical Trade Initiative due to reports of labour abuses. The ethical trade Initiative members sign up to a code of conduct about how they treat workers, and Fyffes has clearly violated these terms.
In one case “14 workers on a melon plantation, which is 60%-owned by Fyffes’ subsidiary Suragroh were allegedly hospitalised after being poisoned by noxious chemicals.” The International Labour Rights Forum reports that 150 workers became sick as they were not provided with the necessary safety equipment. This is not the first time that Suragroh has violated labour rights.
