Unconventional Bananas in Peru: Interview with Julio Oscar Gallegos Herrera-Rambla
The U.S. market tends to treat bananas as commodities, as in unspecialized products that are virtually interchangeable, regardless of origin. Following a century of well-documented exploitative practices by U.S. banana companies, the fruit remains a top seller at U.S. grocery stores. Thanks to the conventional system, bananas are everywhere, cheap as can be, and divorced entirely from the circumstances of their production in the minds of consumers. One banana is like any other.
Equal Exchange aims to dismantle that paradigm, working with a movement of independent businesses – farmer co-ops, distributors, stores – to create a banana supply chain that is unconventional at every step. In a sensitive industry, we look to the farmer organizations revolutionizing the banana trade to envision a future in which the industry represents and benefits all stakeholders.
EE has partnered with CEPIBO, an association of small organic banana producers in Piura, Peru, for 8 years. This week, I had the chance to chat with CEPIBO’s Administrative Manager, Julio Oscar Gallegos Herrera-Rambla, about the unique small farmer sector in which he works, and the future he sees for smallholder banana production.
CEPIBO’s members grow bananas in the Valle del Chira (Chira Valley) in Northern Peru. The valley is part of a micro-climate that is hot and dry and consequently ideal for organic banana farming, since plant diseases are less likely to spread or prosper than they are in the humid tropics.
Unlike other Latin American countries, Peru did not enter the banana export industry until relatively recently. According to Julio, small farmers in Northern Peru began growing organic bananas for export around 20 years ago, having observed the successful industry just across the border in Ecuador. At the outset, these farmers were selling fruit by themselves, typically to the largest exporters. This presented a disadvantage: since small farms in the region are on average just 3 hectares (7.5 acres), a single farmer didn’t have many levers to pull in negotiations with multinational shippers, who could thus dictate prices and volumes at their convenience.
Over time, farmers began to organize into associations and cooperatives. In 2003, CEPIBO was founded by small producers who recognized that they could build collective power if they formed a block and aggregated supply. Says Julio,
Julio, himself, is not a farmer; he studied Business Administration at the University of Piura, and began his career in the private sector. He gained experience in logistics and exportations, working with large conventional export companies. In 2013, after years of working for private companies, he decided to break off and start his own consultancy for export businesses. CEPIBO was his first client, at a time when its business and organic banana production were thriving.
But agriculture, and international trade, can be tremendously volatile. Over the years, CEPIBO has had its share of difficulties in a brutal and unforgiving banana market, where small farmers are competing with lower-priced plantation-grown bananas from other countries and facing the unique challenge of implementing standardized agricultural practices across hundreds of smallholder farms. In 2017, Julio was invited to work with CEPIBO again at a critical moment for the association:
A year later, Julio signed on as a full-time employee of CEPIBO. Julio’s prior experience with private sector greatly informs his perspective as a committed staff member at CEPIBO.
For Julio, an ideal banana industry – a goal for all of us in the supply chain to work towards – would be one that:
It may sound like a grandiose vision, but through business development and marketing of organic, fair trade fruit, CEPIBO is moving in a positive direction. The association has around 365 farmer-members and employs 14 administrative staff members, as well as around 100 staff who work in the field, harvesting and packing bananas. Julio plans to continue working in this fast-paced and challenging environment:
CEPIBO is looking toward a long future of building opportunities for its small-farmer members, and Equal Exchange and its partners across the supply chain are part of that. Through collective work,
Want to learn more about the unconventional EE banana supply chain? Watch this video: