Cocoa is Knocking on the Door in Panama: Bocas del Toro Should not Only Depend on Bananas

After the storm, which forced the Chiquita Company out of Bocas del Toro, comes a moment of reflection, and it is none other than that the province cannot depend, to a large extent, on the banana industry as its main economic and job-creating asset.  That is one of the lessons that apparently stuck with Jackeline Muñoz, Minister of Labor, after Chiquita packed up and left the country, a decision that left more than five thousand Bocas del Toro residents unemployed.  Obviously, this wasn’t unintentional, but rather a consequence of the economic impact the company suffered due to closures in that province as a result of protests against reforms to the Social Security Fund (CSS) law. 

“This leads us to understand that we need to open up other economic activities in the province, that we need to promote cocoa,” said the head of MITRADEL, without forgetting the topic of tourism. “Cocoa provides five jobs per hectare, and bananas provide four. That means that if we develop the cocoa industry robustly, we will generate many more jobs,” Muñoz explained. The company will have a $30 million investment and the hiring of 3,000 people in its first phase. Another 2,000 will be hired by February 2026.  For Muñoz, this first step requires the return of the company’s administrative staff that left the country when the company left, as well as the engineers who “have to oversee the plantations.” 

“The plantations need to be reviewed because it’s clear, given the number of hectares, that they’re going to require a significant amount of labor,” he said.  On the subject of unions, which President José Raúl Mulino pointed out as responsible for the banana workers’ unemployment, Muñoz stated that “the company’s legal conditions must be reviewed to determine whether or not a union exists.”  “It’s a company union, but with the company gone, the Banana Industry and Related Companies Workers’ Union ceases to exist,” he stated, adding that “the conditions under which the company will return must be reviewed. It’s a technical committee where all the components will be discussed.”