Our Visit To Chiquita

Saturday morning we set off to Chiquita, one of Costa Rica’s largest banana plantations. On the way there I was excited, until Glenn mentioned how many chemicals Chiquita releases into their fields and their employees lungs. After that lecture, it was hard to enjoy the plantation.
We first watched a video on how Chiquita is being more environmentally friendly. The video mentioned that in order to help the wildlife around the plantation they are planting trees and such to create a rainforest corridor. The rainforest corridor is meant to connect the wildlife from nearby primary rainforests. Banana plantations need a lot of land to grow the bananas. Chiquita is very proud of their rainforest corridors they are creating. Chiquita is calling their recent social and environmental changes, The Nature and Community Project.
This project involves not only the growth of rainforest corridors, but social changes such as an employee wage increase, better employee working conditions regarding health issues and insurance coverage, and elimination of child labor. A great example of employee having more opportunity was The Chiquita Banana Show we experienced. This show was put on by Chiquita workers, a small business they created. The show educated us on the overall plantation worked, including; employee apparel, the history of bananas and where they originally came from, the banana plant, and how the bananas are grown.
I learned that employees have to wear required apparel while on the plantation. The banana plant originally came from Asia, which is why Chiquita and other banana plantations have to spry so many pesticides on their plants. Bananas are not meant to be grown on Costa Rica’s land. Costa Rica has too many insects and fungus in the soil that doesn’t mix well with banana plants. Pesticides are used to kill the insects and funguses that arise.
I also learned about the banana plant (it’s a plant, not a tree). The plant is like a family, there is a grandfather, a mom, and a son. Each family member is a part of the plant. The grandfather is the strongest most reliable part of the plant, the main part. The mother is the part of the plant that makes the son. The son is where the bananas are grown from. The mom actually creates many sons, but only the strongest survives. The others are cut off. After the first two weeks of growth, the bananas are covered with a plastic bag to protect them from insects. The bananas take about nine months to fully grow. The whole plant can live up to over 25 years. The bananas are then cut off and transported on a cable to the cleansing and packaging part of the plantation. The average load on the cable is about 20-25 bananas.
Chiquita was fun after I gave them a break. I realize it’s still not right that they use all those pesticides, but compared to other banana plantations Chiquita has done an amazing job changing their old habits. I can’t imagine what the employees of the other banana plantations conditions are.

Bananas In General and In CR

Large scale banana production has been conducted in Central America since the beginning of the 20th century. Bananas originated in the tropical regions of Asia. They were introduced to the Caribbean Islands during the period of Spanish colonization. The banana industry is almost entirely controlled by three large fruit companies: Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte. Most of the bananas produced in Central America are exported to industrialized countries.
Banana plantations have been developed primarily along the Caribbean Coast of Central America where the high temperature, rainfall, and rich alluvial soil are suitable for the large scale production of this tropical fruit. High rainfall makes crop irrigation unnecessary, but necessitates the installation of drainage canals to prevent flooding.
Unlike coffee, bananas are commonly used in CR. Bananas are fried, marinated, and eaten as desserts. There are bananas at every meal here in Costa Rica. I’m not really certain who the number one seller of bananas to ticos is. I imagine it is one of the three largest fruit companies: Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte. I guess we’ll see when we visit the banana plantations this weekend.

The difference between Oritos, Bananas, and Platanos

Bananas and plantains, as you know, are very prevalent in Costa Rica. I see oritos, bananas, or plantains at least once a day here. Oritos (cooking bananas) are the smallest which average a little less than 15cm. Bananas (aka dessert bananas)are about 20cm. Plantains (unripe plantains) average less than 25cm. The only difference between these items is the amount of starch content. Those with lots of starch are the cooking bananas and unripe plantains and those with very low starch content which are the tasty dessert bananas. Starch is converted to sugar as the fruit ripens. Oritos could be cooked in any way but does not necessarily have to, but plantains must be boiled, steamed, roasted, or deep fried to make it soft and palatable. Plantains are often green or red skinned, and originated from the Spanish word ‘platano.’
The word "banana" originated in coastal West Africa, and was adopted in the New World for the sweet forms with yellow skin. The banana “tree” (which is not really a tree but a tree-like perennial herb) grows in the humid tropics like a grass. It becomes a tree within a year. Banana is a monoecious plant. Monoecious means having both male and female organs. It has male flowers at the tip and female flowers behind.
So now that I know a little bit more about bananas, I now understand why they are so popular here. Obviously the climate has a lot to do with them growing here so easily and that they can be prepared in many different ways. The typical dish in CR consists of white rice, black beans, fried plantains, and some type of meat. I’ve also noticed that most of the bananas here are brown. My guess is that because many countries import their bananas from CR, CR sends these countries the ripe bananas so that they don’t go bad before they reach there. I guess we’ll have to wait and see until we visit the banana plantations.

Bananas

Costa Rica became the first Central American nation to plant bananas. Banana exportation grew so rapidly that a railroad was built in 1890 to attract more foreign capital. In 1889 Minor C. Keith, a 23 year old banana plantation farmer, merged his company with the Boston Fruit Company and formed the giant United Fruit Company. Due Costa Rica´s banana boom Costa Rica became the world´s largest producer of bananas by 1911.
Today CR banana plantation average 50 million boxes of bananas per year making Costa Rica the second biggest exporter of bananas in the world behind Ecuador. Like coffee plantations, bananas are manually cut from the stalks. However, they are transported mechanically down the rows of the fields to a central location where they are sorted, washed, and put into boxes.