Small-scale producers who supply bananas to the UK say the impacts of climate change have increased their costs and hit yields by as much as 50.
Bananas are at risk of a “devastating” disease as extreme heat and volatile rain cycles put the plants under stress, Colombian farmers have warned.
Albeiro Cantillo, a 54-year-old banana farmer from Cienaga, known as Foncho, said no other crops are financially feasible in the area, meaning farms would be forced out of business if the disease spreads. The challenges have been compounded this year by the El Nino weather phenomenon, intensifying heat from the sun that singes banana leaves and affects photosynthesis.
One such farm is La Princessa near the town of Orihueca where it has seen the number of boxes it packs per week drop from 200 to 110 in recent years.Singed banana leaves on a farm in Columbia Many are also spraying bioferment – an organic locally-brewed fertiliser – on crops as part of a productivity improvement plan developed by Fairtrade’s Latin America organisation CLAC.
But without Fairtrade prices, many Magdalena farmers said their business would not be able to survive.
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